What cannot be seen
by Pernshinigami
Summary: When Aizen failed to beat one group of X-men, he simply crossed dimensions and tried to settle for another. When the danger became clear, one version of Professor Xavier and one version of Magneto sent a warning to their alternate selves in another universe. Yamamoto has sent Ichigo and his friends, plus Byakuya's intractable human niece, the descendant of a famous witch and proph
1. Chapter 1

A/N: so... loads of my fanfiction got fucked up by an mmorpg called Entropia Universe. The other Kurosaki is on hold while I fix the damage. But when my roomie got netflix and I found out they had the /entire/ old school X-men series and the entire spiderman series, the ones I couldn't watch when I was a kid cause my dad didn't like television, I had a dastardly idea! So I've started another story from my gatekeepers saga. Please keep in mind that the saga is co-owned with a fellow fanfiction author. In addition, the characters of Seiji Shihouin, Judah Williams, Tachi and his cat Aki, and a few others that I'll name as they appear are actually from an old Bleach MUSH rpg called Bleach the beginning and the property of their respective players. Saya aka Masamune, Morgan aka Morrigan, Gwen aka Waverunner, Alex Argent aka Flash angel are all my creations.

In addition this is a multiverse fic with the focus on the Xmen series from the 90s, bleach, and X-men evolution, but other universes including pokemon, tenchi, criminal minds, soul eater, naruto, FMA, Star Trek and other favorite anime, sci fi and drama series may be referenced in places. I will put a note where the reference is not immediately obvious.

Full Summary: When Aizen failed to beat one group of X-men, he simply crossed dimensions and tried to settle for another. When the danger became clear, one version of Professor Xavier and one version of Magneto sent a warning to their alternate selves in another universe. Yamamoto has sent Ichigo and his friends, plus Byakuya's intractable human niece, the descendant of a famous witch and prophet, and a Shinigami Lieutenant possessed by the spirit of an ancient dragon to carry the message across the world of Marvel. But victory will hinge on whether or not the other Magneto decides to side with the X-men or Aizen and on the ancient Enchanted Forge of Masamune.

* * *

Gatekeepers, interdimensional keepers of the peace, those who guard the twixt and twain.

They come from all walks of life, human and mutant and many races who are neither. Their job is to strike balance, and no species that walks beside them as an ally is more obsessed with this balance and cycle of life and death than the Shinigami.

A new generation of daring young officers of the Shinigami's main organization, the Gotei 13 has begun to gather allies as the forces of Sosuke Aizen terrorize a multiverse too large for them to handle. Most promising of these are a group of young half breed shinigami of noble family blood known as the Argent Clan. Though the gotei thirteen have made allies in tracking Aizen down, his Sherman's March style rampage has blasted its way through the veil and laid waste to any who stood against him.

Though there are at least four known universes containing heroes known as X-men, only one of them has knowledge of the Gatekeeper or shinigamis existance. In this universe, the Shinigami and Gatekeepers succeeded in repelling Aizen's attacks and convinced Magneto that Aizen was a threat to his cause of Liberating Mutants. It was Magneto's retaliation that assisted the Gatekeepers in their mission of protecting the multiverse. But there are three more worlds with X-men to go.

This is the story of contact with one of those worlds...

* * *

"No Aston you aren't going and thats final." Professor Xavier told Aston Masamune, also known as Aston Martin, fiance of one Ororo aka Storm. "I will not allow it, not when your wedding is this close."

"So Gwen gets the plum job again?"

"And Kailai gets the uneviable job of warning the other Magneto." Professor Xavier sighed as he drove his chair down the hallway towards the schoo's front hall. "She did it once, and all it will take is one attack from Grimmjow overwhelming him and he should see things her way. I spoke with /our/ Magneto via the Gatekeepers secured line this morning, he agrees with the assessment and is giving Kailai something to show the other him to prove that /ours/ sent her."

"This alternate universe stuff is stupidly convoluted." Kailai had her rucksack on her back. "See you Professor. I'll beep you when we've got success." She pulled out her key shaped sword made from Jasper and sliced the portal open. "OYE! Lance, Seiji, Tachi, Mika, Judah come on, don't get lead foot now."

"blah blah blah blah blah." Lance complained as he followed his sensei into the void in space.

"I checked all the computers Professor." Kurt rubbed the back of his neck in annoyance. "Found this bug in the pocket of your spare coat. Lance needs to get better at hiding them. This is the third time Magneto has used his lessons with Kailai to try and bug your office."

At that moment a girl with long black hair and a kensaiken carved from wood pinned to it came out of the nearby storage room with three extremely heavy looking backpacks.

Gwen groaned. "SAYAAAAA do I /really/ need all this gear?"

"We're going to be living rough." Saya replied. "Besides, the bags are Mokeskin, from the Magical World, there's no need to worry about overpacking them." (1)

Gwen, a shinigami and lieutenant of the thirteenth division yawned. "Yo professor. So I got the mission briefing, sounds like a job for a buncha rookies alright. Looks like Kailai took the really strong ones."

"Where's Morgan?" Xavier asked.

"psshhhht, showering off after practice in the Danger Room." Kitty groaned as she slumped in from training, exhausted and irritable. "Last I checked her clothes needed a wash too."

"I keep spare Shihaksho at the manor when I know I'm going to have lessons here." Petite, blonde, with gorgeous blue eyes, Morgan was a beautiful young vizard, or shinigami with hollow abilities. For control, it was either train in the danger room or train with Hiyori and Shinji and be beaten over the head by Hiyori's sandals. She picked the former. She was an apprentice level, or genin gatekeeper, with a specialty in many forms of spell casting but was weak in physical strength without a special transformation.

And Wolverine regularly made a point of picking on her, pushing the girl to her limits of physical endurance. Morgan was a regular guest of the Xavier school for the gifted despite not being a mutant. Shinigami were welcome to come and go there and Xavier did his best to help them despite their not being his specialty.

He'd been named an official Gatekeeper Training Department Consultant last month, an award Gwen's father, Takato had been proud to present him with. (2)

But now, Gwen, a journeywoman ranked gatekeeper, was being charged with Morgan, Saya and Alex's training. "Where /is/ Alex? This is a training mission and both Saya and her specialty is support."

"HERE!" Alex ran down the hall. "Sorry I'm late." A pair of phoenixes floated past the witch and circled Professor Xavier, singing happily. "ooooh, those two just can't help themselves around you Professor. They're always so happy to see you even if they just did an hour before." (3)

The two birds twittered happily before floating back to Alex's shoulder.

"Good, now that the three of you are assembled, Gwen you've seen the mission briefing?"

"hai... Aizen lost here, so he's sending Grimmjow and a bunch of Fraccion to the other universe where there are alternate versions of yourselves to try for round two." Gwen sighed. "I know why he thinks he's gonna win, frankly I disagree with his reasoning but we have to go regardless."

"how come?" Saya asked. "I mean to both. Why does Aizen want to try again with the other X-men and why do you disagree with his assessment that he can win?"

"I'm curious too, though I know the answer to the first bit. I'd like to hear your criticism Gwen. You're a good assesser of character." Understatement of all time, Gwen's job as a gatekeeper was to help villains reform. Given how powerful and fractious some of them were, Gwen was lucky to have made the friends she had.

"Okay its like this Saya, what if your father had never left New Orleans when Katrina hit?"

"Then we'd still have to put up with my grandpa trying to terrorize us from Jail and I'd never have met Kuchiki-chan and Kuchiki-sama." Saya was Byakuya and Rukia's human niece, her father was Anonri, Byakuya's older brother. Anonri's line had been pronounced a branch line, a backup in case Byakuya and Rukia died, a reserve of fresh undiseased DNA to counter the in breeding most noble clans eventually faced.

"Uhuh, now a man like, for example, Wolverine, has lived for decades longer than a normal person right? So what would have happened if ooooh, 50 years back the /other/ Wolverine got a similar decision to the one here and made the opposite choice of /our/ Wolverine?"

"Then you get an alternate universe. Its why we can't count on Magneto seeing things our way in the other world you're going to." Professor Xavier cut in. "Even though /our/ Magneto gave us a strategy for convincing the other one that Aizen is a threat, if he still doesn't believe Kailai we're in for a seriously rocky ride."

"now, that leads me to my other assessment. These are older, alternate versions of the Xmen we know here." Professor Xavier smiled at Gwen's explanation. "So they've not only done different things, they've also had a lot more experience. That experience counts in their favor in a way it didn't for /our/ Xmen who are mostly only teenagers."

"Not to mention the team configurations are very different. They have a team member named Jubilee, we have Evan and Kitty instead." Professor Xavier had read Takato's assessment file.

"And Gambit is on the Xmen side in the other universe." Added Gwen with a grin. "mmmm, cajuuuunnnn."

"You're married, what are you mmmming at Gambit for? At either of them for?" Alex demanded.

"Shhhhhh..." Saya grinned. "Its just being Cajun, we're that memorable and mmm worthy." Saya beamed. Saya's mother was cajun /and/ voodoo. Saya had a healthy acquaintence with all of them and with the catholic and west african origins of her faith.

"you're cajun?" Kurt had been listening to them. "I thought you were shinigami."

"My dad is shinigami, me mum is aaaallll yummy cajun an everything that comes with it!" Saya had hearts for eyes. "Gambit is the coolest mutant ever because he /rocks/ the cajun thing."

Kurt just laughed. "But weren't you head over heals for that Nod fellow?"

"NOG! And hells no, he's a Ferangi we click on a level when it comes to business, we suck at everything else." For a child, Saya had an unusual way of doing things. She'd already made about 50,000 dollars in her own money off the sale of artwork and she had varying land holdings and buildings she rented as a business. The girl was a hands on management type, with an extremely creative and efficient flare.

"no kidding. I once watched her yell at her business rival via a cellphone while she wordlessly would flip Quark coins for drinks." Morgan facepalmed. "That girl knows how to turn the odd dollar. How to save it too."

"I want him to autograph my playing cards." Saya was starry eyed and Gwen had to drag her away. "Gambit is soooooo dreamy. He's the one cajun I idolize."

"Isn't Emeril Cajun?" Morgan's face was twitching as they headed for the front door where they'd open the portal.

"Lemme check on my iPad." Saya poked a few buttons as Gwen pulled out the enchanted Sapphire keyblade she used as part of the Gatekeepers. "nope, he's french canadian but born in massachusattes. He only cooks cajun." SWISH the blade sliced open space itself, and Gwen unceremoniously shoved Saya through. Alex chuckled, looking over at her cousin. "Guess we'd better get our costumes on." They stepped through. "ick, we were off the mark."

"no we aren't. My GPS has us less than a hundred miles from the /other/ Xavier's School for the Gifted. I picked an area that my dad's survey says was remote enough not to be sensed, and since none of us has the X gene we can't be immediately picked up by cerebro. However, I /do/ know how to fool Cerebro into thinking us Mutants if necessary. Still, associating with his school should in and of itself be enough even if we don't use our powers. If we're seen going in there by the townsfolk, they will automatically assume us to be mutants and we never have to bother to prove them otherwise."

"Right, we need to set up camp for the night." Saya sighed.

"For once I agree with Saya, Storm must have used her powers recently, the air is highly saturated with water. It will rain sometime in the next two days."

* * *

"Missing? Are you sure?" Professor Xavier asked the young mutant father from the nearby town.

"yes... my daughter, if she's inherited the X gene her powers haven't appeared yet, she's too young. and my wife is normal, she cannot assist me. My daughter went out of my sister's cabin this morning two hours before lunch and hasn't returned." The man wasn't that strong.

"Does your wife know?" Cyclops asked politely. He didn't want to out the poor man if his wife were out of the loop.

"yes she does, but she felt it better if I approach you alone, not to mention she's on her way up to the cabin now. Its less than an hour from here by road. Please help?"

"Finding lost kids isn't my cup of tea." Wolverine sighed. "Put me on standby in case somethin really mean shows up."

"i'll go..." Jean volunteered. "I love helping children." Gambit smirked at Cyclops and made a rather suggestive gesture behind Jean's back. The twitch of the telepaths eybrow however, indicated Jean had picked up the track the cajun's thoughts were headed down and purposefully decided to ignore it.

"Send Jubilee with you, she's younger a kid might respond better to her." Cyclops sighed. "I'll have medical ready for you if the kid's injured, gimme a call and I'll take the Blackbird out for a medevac run."

"Wolverine, you know your nose would be good for this." Gambit heckled. "Is it because you don't know how to handle crying children?"

"Yeah, that and I'm not a babysitter. Besides, one psychic is more than enough to find a lost kid. You don't need a blood hound too."

* * *

Saya set up camp quickly and began to patrol the forest for hollows. She heard a voice crying. "Hmmm?"

She pushed aside some bushes. A little girl spirit was sitting there crying in the middle of a grizzly scene. "gaaaaoooooo..." A familiar blonde face was covered in the girl's blood, peering dumbly down at her body and occasionally tearing at it bare handed while her soul cried nearby as a disembodied ghost.

"Wonderweiss Magiera, the arrancar created to seal the commander general's zanpakuto. If I can take him out a major threat to the gotei thirteen will be no more... but first the girl."

Saya hmmmed, then opened her Book of Masamune, an enchanted book that brought to life anything Saya drew in it. "I summon the Nekomata, demon cat guardian of the household and Nue, the curr that plagues the Emperor!"

Two ink and rice paper drawings appeared in front of Saya. One was an enormous creature with the head of a monkey, the body and claws of a tiger, the forelimbs of a monkey, and with a snake for a tail. With him was a gigantic demon cat with huge rolling yellow eyes and a forked tail.

"Nekomata get the girl, move quietly and quickly, take her soul not her body. We can't do anything for her now." Saya mounted the Nue and pulled out a small folded paper crane and spoke at it, far away the other cranes would broadcast her voice to her teammates. "This is Saya Labeaux Kuchiki, Wonderweiss Magiera has taken his first victim. I'm attempting to remove her soul from the crime scene. Please sempai, cousin, be ready to konso her!" The Nekomata grabbed the girl's spirit, threw her to its back and disappeared into the forest, its eyes and grin the last trace anyone would see of it, much like the cheshire cat.

Wonderweiss let out an enormous howl. The halfwitted arrancar shot out of the trees and looked about for the stolen prize, the girl's ghost.

"Invisible ink." Saya was not above the tree line, she knew better, there was no cover out there. She covered them both in ink that rendered herself, the girl's spirit, and the drawings invisible to Wonderweiss. Then fled as fast as she could. Wonderweiss, confused by the invisibility technique, returned to the body hoping that the girl might have returned there. But he didn't have long to wait for someone else to show up.

* * *

Jean was searching the forest with her mind and Jubilee was trying to stay focused. The woods weren't her cup of tea and the headstrong girl wanted to be at the mall right then. Still, a cry for help was a cry for help, she couldn't turn her back. "Gaaaaaaaaooooo..." They heard a dull groan.

Jean motioned for Jubilee to be silent. "Whatever it is, its not too smart... don't startle it." She told the girl quietly. "come."

They crept towards the sound... and when the blood spattered across the clearing and the crumpled body, and the bloody figure standing over it hit her, Jubilee couldn't hide her horror and screamed.

The figure looked up and hissed. "Gaarrroooooooowww..." The hole in the boy's chest, the mask, he clearly wasn't human and for a mutant, to Jean Grey he felt all wrong. No, this wasn't even a mutant, this was something unknown and dangerous.

"Jesus you're dumb Wonderweiss, look at the mess you've made!" A green haired girl who also had a mask and a hole in her face stepped out of the clearing. "Shit... the humans will notice us at this rate, look they already have." Of course, the other Xmen, and the Shinigami knew the girl as Lilinette, fraccion of the former Primero Espada, Starrk. Lilinette smirked over at the two X-men. "if it were just me I'd have beat you to a pulp and let you live, but with idiot here, well, he's more likely to kill you than I am." She smirked.

"Why would you do this?" Jean was too horrified to speak, but she kept her wits about her, broadcasting what she was seeing back to the Professor. No, it was Jubilee who managed words of condemnation and shock.

"Y... you really don't know?" The girl burst out laughing. "OH GOD, AIZEN-SAMA WAS RIGHT, YOU MUTANTS REALLY ARE THAT DUMB, YOU CAN'T EVEN TELL I'M NOT ALIVE STILL AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Oooooooh, how can the other Jean Grey have ever beat me? This is gonna be fuuuuun..." Lilinette launched herself at Jean, aiming for the rudest most tender female parts possible.

The telepath threw Lilinette off easily with little more than a bruise and used her telepathy to stun their attacker momentarily.

"Jubilee RUN!" Wonderweiss, set off by the use of someone's powers, lunged at Jean.

"GAOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Jean dodged his cupped swipe at her only for him to go for the throat immediately and power up a cero. Jean grabbed Jubilee and flew as fast as her brain could carry her.

"THIS IS JEAN GREY, WE'RE BEING FIRED UPON, BLONDE BOY AND GREEN HAIRED GIRL."

"What about the girl!?" Cyclops demanded via the coms.

"Dead, the boy..."

Wonderweiss had somehow appeared behind her. So FAST! One minute he was on the ground, Jean's /senses/ registered his mind and his body by extension was on the ground. The very next instant he was behind her. "JEAN LOOK OUT!" Jubilee shrilled.

Lilinette came up behind her. "ahahahahaa, I'm gonna rub this in the other Jean's face! Little miss perfect gets WEAKER as she gets older!"

The two arrancar drew their swords and lunged in for the kill.

Step... WOOOOOSH!

A pair of scaley blue hands snatched Jean and Jubilee, throwing one over each shoulder. "Masamune-chaaaannn." Gwen yawned. Masamune was Saya's codename. "Flash Angel-chan..." Alex's codename.

Saya appeared, riding on her Nue. "Hai sempai?"

Alex did the same, six enormous wings of energy had sprouted from her back. The two phoenixes from before, Bennu and Anasazi, had transformed into two huge metal talon shaped weapons with blades at the wrists and elbows. "Yes Lady Waverunner?"

"Take out the trash, teach Aizen he can't cheat and still win. I'm going to get these two to safety."

"to the manor milady?" Alex asked politely.

"Hellz no, for letting their guard down and nearly getting killed, these two can either call Cyclops to come get them or /walk./" Gwen said sorely. "Wonderweiss indeed. Someone's gonna get their powers sealed if they aren't careful and that MESS is a pain in the ass to undo."

"Yes Lady Mirai. I remember, mother was trying to cleanse the seal Wonderweiss' power creates for hours last time." Alex said cheerfully. Mirai and Waverunner were Gwen's codenames. Alex's mother specialized in exorcism, cleansing, and healing.

"Whatever training you girls get in the danger room as punishment for letting your guard down its better than being dead." Gwen growled as she flew away. "We're going to a safe distance and then I want to supervise those two. Durn rookies."

"Who /are/ you..."

"you may know me as either Mirai or Waverunner, I go by both." The girl said gruffly. "We knew their boss was sending someone, didn't think it would be Wonderweiss. He's attracted to people with the potential to become powerful when their abilities mature and he's capable of sealing their powers utterly for a period of time. That shit is damned hard to reverse but it can be done. I just don't want the mess of making a rookie like Alex do it."

The battle began in earnest, Gwen added as an afterthought. "The blackbird has taken off. She'll be here soon." Bursts of flame, lightning, ink and paper and energy could be seen in the sky. Reiatsu rolled off the two pairs in waves. Jean couldn't believe her eyes, she'd seen her share of fire and lightning attacks and fliers, but Saya's ability was brand new. She seemed able to summon drawings from her book at will to attack her enemies.

Wonderweiss and Saya were tangling as hard as they possibly could, clash, clash, clang, ink and paper rained on the forest below. Saya was forced to ride in an aerial battle, usually on the drawing of her nue. Gwen's wings were open wide enough to stay aloft without being thrown off course by the massive gusts of reiatsu that came off the four.

There were bursts and flashes of light visible to the Xmen as far away as the manor but their originators weren't able to be seen clearly. Gwen let out a gusty, bored sigh. Until...

Lilinette released her ressurecion against Alex aka Flash angel. "oh boy, HANG ON TIGHT FLASH ANGEL, ITS NOT AS STRONG WITHOUT STARRK AROUND!"

**JEAN, WHAT'S GOING ON OVER THERE. I CAN FEEL THE ENERGY THEY'RE PUTTING OFF ALL THE WAY FROM THE MANOR!**

The professor's mental voice was pretty concerned.

**Two very strong girls are fighting off our assailants. Another, she looks in her late teens, is holding a defensive position protecting us. **Jean replied. **Professor, I don't think I can beat them, and if I can't, Jubilee certainly can't.**

**Understood, Gambit and Wolverine went with the Blackbird to come get you, and now that Beast has got the medical bay on standby. **

Then Gwen groaned. "SHIT! Wonderweiss got free from Masamune!"

He started dashing towards them. "Gaaaaaaaooooooooooo..."

Once, when Gwen didn't know what Wonderweiss was for, she'd spared his life out of pity. But now that she knew he was created specifically to seal the powers of high level opponents, she fully regretted her decision."

Lilinette's release had transformed her into an enormous wolf with fire on its feet and tail, pale blue spirit fire. This wasn't a very good situation. When Saya pursued Wonderweiss, Lilinette turned aside from her fight with Alex and chased them, and Alex in turn chased Lilinette.

Wonderweiss latched onto Gwen immediately. Gwen realized too late that it may very well be her powers that Wonderweiss was out to take. "JEAN TAKE THE GIRL NOW!" Gwen shoved Jean and Jubilee onto a platform of water and had it carry them as far as possible from her as she transformed into a dragon.

Too late to prevent a pile up. Wonderweiss clung to her chest powering up a cero in a suicide attack at the same time Gwen was shooting ice to try and get him off. She heard the roar of the blackbird and used water to shove the aircraft out of the way, another waterblast aimed to shield the fleeing Jean Grey, carrying Jubilee along with her. It was too late, they'd survive, but the injuries would leave them both out for a month or more.

The cero went off. "MIRAI-SAMAAAAAA!" Alex's desperate yell was the last thing Gwen heard as she, Jean and Jubilee went flying. "MIRAI SAMAAAAAA!"

At the same time the Blackbird was floundering midair from the water Gwen had used to save its passengers, which had disappeared when Gwen had been KO'd. The water had got to the engines and the aircraft was having a lot of trouble. An SR71 Blackbird like the one the X-men used (4) was having major trouble with the foundering craft.

"WE'RE GOING DOWN!" Cyclops ran for the nearest parachute. "Hurry up!" he tossed Wolverine and Gambit each one. "When it hits the ground the emergency... whaaat?"

The plane had suddenly stopped moving. A paper crane appeared in front of Cyclops' face. "Please cut the engines, Masamune-sama will carry you to the ground."

The plane slowly began to descend into the forest only to come to a bump on the ground.

The creatures that had attacked Jean and Jubilee were being driven back by Morgan and Alex above, the two cousins having little trouble. Several drawings of japanese mythical beasts made from ink and rice paper had surrounded the blackbird.

And standing amongst them, a girl riding on a nue drawing. She had her hair pulled back in a pony tail with some kind of ridged wooden head piece on one side and carved pins made from oakwood and carved like oak leaves. Her accent was vaguely cajun, but far lighter than Gambit's. Her hair was long and flowing and as black as a raven's wing. Cobalt blue eyes could be seen from within her barred, bird like mask along with red eyeshadow patterned like feathers near each eye. She carried a giant paintbrush shaped like a monk's staff at the handle's end. Her outfit was that of an onmyoji and colored green and white in a geometric pattern.

"my name is Masamune, master of myth and legend. Your friends were unfortunate to have stumbled upon the monsters they did. The hollows spare nobody, human or mutant. They simply kill and eat the souls of their victims. Oh and Lilinette is determined to beat Jean to a bloody pulp so you'd better go find her." She turned, launching up into the air. "I will cover your retreat, FIND MY MASTER AND GET HER AND YOUR FRIENDS TO SAFETY!"

"Only reason why I'm not up there is that I can't fly." Wolverine growled. "HEY GUMBO, GRAB THE EMERGENCY PACK, we're searching by foot for jean."

"i've got a tracker to track her and Jubilee's communicators." Cyclops held up the small device as he hurried after Gambit to flip the emergency tracking beacon that would alert the manor. "Lets go."

Another ink animal appeared, the Nekomata from before, except... "THE GIRL!" Cyclops ran back out of the Blackbird. "Good god what did they do to her?"

Now that he'd gotten a look, cyclops could see what Jean hadn't had the time to notice. An enormous black hole had been ripped in the girl's chest. No blood, just black, the pupils had vanished from her eyes and her body had been lacerated by some kind of claw. Grey shadowy bruises covered her ankles and feet.

The Nekomata let out a distressed cat noise. "Set her down in the Blackbird okay girl?" Gambit asked the cat gently.

The drawing nodded and walked into the plane. The instant the girl's corpse was inside, the cat said in Saya's voice. "Rest in peace little one... I am truly sorry that they got you... you did not deserve it." then it turned to the three men. "RUN! Hurry" And disappeared.

The three Xmen ran through the forest headlong for the location of Jean's communicator.

It didn't take long to find the two fallen X-men and the strange girl. She was crumpled, half out of her dragon form, wings coiled over Jean and Jubilee, and long curves of ice, rapidly melting, had been raised around them to help protect them from stray fire.

Gwen groaned. "My bag, look inside... bring the contents... to the Pr..." She blacked out, unable to complete her instruction.

"I think she started to say professor, but since she didn't finish, I'll just assume thats what she wants." Wolverine smirked.

Cyclops rolled his eyes as he assessed the trio's injuries. "Jean's arm is broken, and Jubilee, that headwound looks bad." he shook his head.

It didn't take long for the battle to be forced out of range of Xavier's School for the Gifted, the five combatants were only visible on Cerebro now, and it didn't take much longer than that for all three injuries to be medevaced to the school or for the Blackbird to be recovered.

The father mourned her daughter. And both father and mother and medical examiner agreed to keep the girl's true cause of death a secret. It was simply put in the papers that she'd been found dead and mutilated and that a blonde boy covered in blood was spotted at the crimescene but fled. The hole and mask were left out of Wonderweiss' description and a quick message to the Morlocks by Storm set the entire local Mutant community on guard. The message spread further, till it hit the ears of other superheroes who weren't part of the X-men or Mutants, passed from ear to ear.

**Strange halfwitted blonde villain and foul tempered green haired girl, strong enough to subdue two of the X-men's finest, had slain an innocent girl and both the Xmen's defenders and their assailant were still at large. Proceed with caution.**

From Spiderman to the Avengers, the world of Marvel was soon on alert that something new and dangerous was in the air.

* * *

1. Mokeskin is a substance from the Harrypotter world, a container made from it can hide hundreds of pounds of material at once in an object the size of a backpack with no strain on its carrier.  
2. Takato is from digimon tamers.  
3. Harry potter phoenixes, Alex's ancestors are partially from that world partially from the world of Soul eater.

4. I'm fairly sure thats the type of plane the Blackbird is, its the only jet I know that shares both name and description with the X-men's jet.


	2. Chapter 2

Gwen's head hurt a /lot./ She could hear voices and was struggling towards them, trying to get from her inner world to their owners. she had a mission, she had to accomplish her mission!

"Is she going to be alright?"

"Her regeneration speed is slower than Logan, its almost as if some other force not belonging to her is healing her. I've been trying to get some bead on who she is but its as if she's gone deeply asleep."

**Gweeeeeeennnnn... **Seiryuu's voice called to her. **Come into your inner world and rest, the professor has received the message from himself, but he can come to me if he needs something. I know you hate inactivity, so sleeeeeep...**

"when I probed inside of her mind, the girl was blocked off from me, instead I saw something enormous and ancient. But I couldn't see it clearly. All I knew was that this force was powerful, and it could hurt me but it didn't want to." Professor Xavier was explaining. "That ancient force is giving her a lot of power, its pushed her into Class 5 in strength and past it."

They'd held an impromptu meeting in the hospital room, Jubilee had more than a bashed head, she had cracked ribs, and she and Jean were going to be in bed for at least a week, Jubilee for longer.

"Just how strong is the little blue girlie anyway?" Wolverine demanded.

"If it weren't for her Cybernetic arm, she could probably defeat Magneto easily. Beyond that... she could probably have a go at Juggernaut and win, probably take chunks out of Apocalypse before he succeeded in getting her." Professor Charles Xavier knew someone who had fought for protracted periods when he saw them. This girl was a warrior capable of hitting heights frightening when compared to most Mutants.

And then there was the message. "I know you probably don't know this girl, Charles, and that you don't remember making this message." The him on the tape had said. "I am you, but from an alternate universe. The X-men here are younger, but many are the same that you know. We're stuck in the middle of a desperate long term conflict and our enemies have come to you now. Arm yourself and your students. The unknown is knocking at our doors."

"Chunks out of apocalypse? I don't believe it! It usually takes all of us to send that slimeball packing!" Rogue shook her head disbelievingly.

**Quite literally chunks, but it wasn't the same Apocalypse that you know. **An amused, deep bass Telepathic voice laughed. **It was a different form of the same individual, does the term Paralel Universe strike a bell? Ah but my darling host performed well, ripping pieces from him was preferable to letting him go on the rampage.**

An enormous apparition of a dragon appeared before Charles Xavier and the X-men. His scales were enormous sapphire, his eyes slitted green and gold, his claws were as sharp as knives. His form was that of a chinese dragon and his voice was a deep commanding bass boom in their minds. **I am Seiryuu, one of the four Harmonious Ones. I rule the element of water, and all Mutants who dwell within or use the waters gain both blessings and power from me. That girl is my Oracle, my host. I need her in order to survive and all water element combatants require my existance as well. Even one of your own X-men becomes stronger and more vital in my presence.**

"You mean me?" Storm asked in amusement.

**Yes, and the other Harmonious ones rule the other elements.** Seiryuu replied. **Professor, you and I must have a chat, for I know that you are quite curious. It is a trait I applaud, but I cannot have you poking around in my host's mind at the moment. As per our contract with each other, I must act in her best interests in return for using her body.**

"What do you need her body for?" Cyclops blinked. This was reminding him all too much of the incident with the phoenix.

**In order to provide power to the waters and all who gain their powers from the water, I need a body! She lives her life as a mortal in service to a higher call! My body is long since turned to dust, become the rivers of the earth and given them life and strength! Now come Professor...**

Professor Xavier promptly fell asleep in his chair despite having been quite alert a moment before, a faint sapphire sheen of energy covered his skin. Seiryuu's apparition was gone. **Do not worry X-men, I will return with your Professor /shortly./**

* * *

Xavier had left his body for astral projection only once before, when the Phoenix had appeared and Leandra was trying to contact him for help. But here he was, standing amid the sands and eternal darkness of Hueco Mundo, standing atop Los Noches with Seiryuu. **This is the dimension of eternal night, Hueco Mundo. Here the only rules are those of power and dominence. Only the strongest are able to survive and every day is a battle to establish a pecking order. The only rule of law here is that which allows its inhabitants to live long enough to fight another day.**

_It looks incredibly empty..._

**No, look behind you.**

"I HATE ALL OF YOU STUPID GATEKEEPERS, ANYONE YOU ALLY YOURSELVES WITH, I'LL KILL THEM ALL!" Lilinette screamed. "STAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRK I NEED YOU! I NEED YOU DAMNIT HOW COULD YOU LET THEM TAKE YOU AWAY FROM ME! I WILL HAVE REVENGE FOR YOU STARRRRRRRKKKK!"

"gaaaaaaoooo..." Wonderweiss sat next to her, bored despite the show of melodrama and angst Lilinette was putting on.

"You two RUNTS are lucky to be alive!" An enormous hand, twice the size of Beast's, reached down and grabbed them. "I'VE TOLD YOU ONCE, TWICE AND A THOUSAND TIMES, STAY AWAY FROM /ANY/ PERSON IN ANY DIMENSION NAMED JEAN GREY!"

**Grimmjaw Jaegerjacks. Remember him Professor. He is... special. **

"I have marked her as my prey Grimmjaw-sama."

"NO. If I have to challenge you to keep you safe Lilinette I will! Starrk has gone to service a higher power now. He would WANT me to keep you safe as my CUB!"

"I want to prove myself to the other arrancar! I'm stuck in this puny body! How else am I to do it but by challenging a puny powered human to dominence!?"

"you don't understand. The humans are rising into their own as a powered race. Give it a few centuries, if they don't kill themselves in two hundred years they'll be well on their way to becoming stronger than the Seireitei! Do /not/ underestimate a powered human as your opponent. Jean Grey may look like a pretty lady with nothing stronger than Telepathy to guide her. But she is a class 5 mutant and she is CAPABLE of turning you into a blithering idiot lying on the ground with no mind left! We don't just have to survive against our own kind anymore. Do NOT make the mistake I did when I challenged Ichigo Kurosaki. Find another opponent to prove yourself against who is CLOSER to your power level. I will not see you crushed by an X-man, I will NOT!"

_Curious, they are protecting each other?_ Xavier asked Seiryuu.

**Powerful hollow have learned the value of forming a pack. These have evolved to the most human like level, the arrancars. **

FLASH

They were standing in a home that the Professor quickly recognized as Japanese. As he watched, an enormous monster crashed through the wall of the house, simply phasing through it like a ghost. "ORIHIMEEEEEE!" he attacked an orange haired girl and her friend. The two put up a feeble fight. "Since you have forgotten your own brother, your soul will live inside of me, AS A MEAL! You will NEVER be seperated from me AGAIN!"

"I AM THE ONE THAT YOU'RE REALLY AFTER, LEAVE HER ALONE AND FIGHT ME!" A boy, barely fifteen, with brilliant carrot colored hair, and a sword the length of his body in a black uniform burst in and attacked the beast.

**This is the weakest form of hollow, newly spawned, all of its pain and resentment have been unleashed upon the girl the hollow called Acid Wire once called a sister. Not only that, but all of his sisters friends, anyone near her is in danger from him. Acid wire was eventually defeated by the boy. But he is a prime example of the danger these creatures pose to /all/ humans.**

**These creatures are called The Hollows. They form from the souls of deceased humans who either refused to cross over or couldn't do so in time. Their souls rotted and became warped and monsterous by their anger, their hatred and regret.**

Professor Xavier was shown images of battles between powered humans, shinigami, and hollows and arrancar. Even a few of Orihime fighting. _This is amazing. These humans, and the ones in the black robes, are they mutants?_

**After a fashion, their powers come from their souls, not the X-gene. The ones in black robes are shinigami like the one who came to you, Waverunner. Shinigami evolved from humans thousands of years ago and have a unique responsibility to maintain balence within the cycle of life and death.**

The images focused again on the battle between the orange haired boy and Acid Wire. Orihime threw her arms around the hollow, crying, apologizing for everything only wanting her brother to move on.

**Watch carefully Professor. **

The hollow began to thrash, tearing at his face, at his mask. "He's resisting the monster inside of him. Right now for his sister's sake there's a human in there fighting the animal." A black haired woman told the boy.

"What... but Orihime!"

"The chain of fate is still attached, as long as it is, we can put Orihime back in her body."

As the professor watched, the hollow ripped its own mask of, said a tearful goodbye to Orihime, and then killed itself using the boy's sword. **He is in a better place now. His soul lives on in the realm of peace, the Soul Society. **

_The realm of peace?_

**Its not as peaceful as you would think. Come...**

They emerged in a bright world, above a midevil Japanese Fortress. Beyond Xavier could see smaller buildings, out beyond the walls and gates of the fortress. The place was immense in size. As they descended towards a building full of black and white suited figures running about with the kanji for thirteen on it.

A messanger ran by them. "Ryuunami-fukutaichou! Sir Xavier and Sir Magneto have come to speak to you! HURRY!"

"I'll take my own sweet fucking time." Gwen yawned, a cup of tea and a sumi ink brush still in hand.

A pair of figures strode into the courtyard. "Charles, Magnus how nice to see you!" The girl would not touch Magneto and regarded him with guarded caution. Small wonder, her right arm was entirely cybernetic.

Professor Xavier stared in shock at... himself? Wait, there were minor differences in facial structure, and Magneto's hair was too short under his helmet, his height easily a handspan smaller. Their voices were younger. _What is going on?_

**Alternate versions of you and Magneto, the one /she/ knows immediately realized the threat that hollows posed to both humans and mutants and grudgingly agreed to a mutal protection treaty that protects and provides anti hollow training both for his Brotherhood and the alternate versions of your X-men. Pressed by the hollows in their universe they have come to ask a favor, let us follow!**

Space warped around them and they were sitting in an office in the building. "So... I was wondering how long it would take you to ask. After that near gutting the last one gave Logan."

"He and Gambit will recover. But they barely won, they're both far older and more experienced than the others in our groups." The other Xavier explained.

"Ulquiorra nearly killed me the last time, and Yammy tried to kill my son, I take that kind of attack personally." Magneto growled. The stapler on Gwen's desk levitated from the surface sparking. Magneto grabbed it and pushed it back down.

"Magneto contain yourself. Kailai and I have worked hard to train the Brotherhood and the Xmen to fight hollows. The standard course of training at the shinigami academy is SIX YEARS. We have far less than that. Aizen's swarm has stayed in your world for a time mainly to try and locate and hollowfy any Mutants that might oppose him. If he can turn the Xmen or the Brotherhood into hollows, he'll have an enormous victory. Your world will be DEFENSELESS."

Both men bowed their heads. "We need to know how Saya's training as an Enchanted Blacksmith is going."

"She's nearly able to enchant what she pleases how she pleases. But her father's and Totosai's (1) swordsmithing knowledge has created an odd side effect. One that could backlash heavily against you Magneto and heavily /favors/ Charles."

"And that is?"

"The swords curse someone who draws them with the intent of revenge, cold blooded murder, or other ill intent. Magneto that /curse/ could injure you badly and impair your ability to combat them. The girl will not let you take them without that warning."

"A CURSE?" Magneto laughed. "you know I'm hardier than THAT Soul Reaper! What damage can a CURSE do to me?"

"you may want to /heed/ this warning of mine /Magnus./" Gwen snarled, both men rocked back, the other Xavier, the one with Seiryuu could see a ripple in the air around Magneto. The man's chair was slowly tipping back, like he'd been pushed. "If I can knock you over with my reiryoku, what do you think Grimmjow is going to do? He's under cover. He has to act like an enemy and live or die for the sake of beating Aizen, when you fight him Magneto you NEED to make it look convincing. Of course, convincing doesn't require you survive, and if you fool around fighting him, he's not the kind of opponent you can risk inflicting damage to yourself over. Curses are not a joke."

Magneto looked at the ground, this expression on his face, it was stress, irritation, frustration. "Peace and vengeance, each has a role in their time and each MUST balance the other. Neither can win for long. The vengeful become tired and burn down to but a cinder without the peaceful to ease their suffering, and the peaceful become too easily overrun if they aren't willing to get up and shed their ploughshares for swords. It is up to the two of you as your world's protectors to cover for the other's weaknesses. You must do as the soul reapers do, and not seek victory, but BALENCE. It is the only goal that can protect your planet from the Hollows as Humanity /must/ soon learn to do."

_Balence?_ Xavier asked.

**The shinigami are neither good nor evil, they are there to balance the two. **Seiryuu growled. **Gwen knows that if she gets this wrong, the other Xavier's X-men and the other Magneto's Brotherhood will pay the price not only with their lives but with their souls. She does not fool around with those she has been trusted to train.**

"What is this curse? What does it entail?" The other Xavier asked.

_Good question._

"Why don't you ask Saya? I sent a hell butterfly for her."

"I have truly earned my nom de guerre this time." A female voice said outside as she entered. "Good day Professor Xavier, sir Magneto, it is a pleasure to finally meet you both. I have watched the battle files of both your X-men and your Brotherhood. I began working on something to help you when it became apparent to me that you were struggling."

"Thank you um..." Magneto hesitated.

"My name is Saya Labeaux Kuchiki, descendent of Voodoo queen Marie Labeaux and a branch member of the Kuchiki clan. You may call me also by "Masamune" and use the title "Loremaster."" Saya bowed to them both. "By the way..."

She blushed furiously and flashed Magneto a huge grin. "I WANT GAMBIT'S AUTOGRAPH, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE! I HEARD HE'S ON YOUR TEAM NOW PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!"

"only if I get a full explanation of this curse and a demonstration of what you can do child. Surely as a Gatekeeper you must have some kind of unique power."

"You got it in one, my power is a class called Fullbring. We fullbringers have the ability to alter the matter of objects, especially ones we have a fondness for. As for this curse." She grinned. "You up for a story old man?"

"I will tell him the story. The enchantment system Saya will be using to make the swords was originally designed by one of the Swordsmiths in this story." Gwen told the other Professor and Magneto.

"A long time ago there were two swordsmiths with attitudes much like your own. Masamune was a follower of the way of Zen and sought to make the ultimate blade. But he himself was wise and peace loving, he sought the swordsmith's path as a Way to enlightenment. By contrast, his apprentice Muramasa was very brash. He considered swords killing weapons, and the object always a destructive end. What else was there? A sword had only one use, killing, what did the intent matter? What mattered other than making a powerful blade?"

The two men looked at her expectantly as Gwen cleared her throat and took a sip of her tea. Xavier leaned forward in his chair a little closer while Magneto stayed put. The other Xavier could tell that the alternate version of his rival was extremely stressed by the situation.

"Apprentices of that era were commonly expected to surpass their teachers, and to this end Muramasa challenged his sensei to a contest to see who could forge the greatest blade. They had very different images of what a sword should be. When they met at a waterfall, with a monk to judge their efforts, Masamune tied his blade to a rope, and lowered it into the waters. The current buffeted gently past Masamune's blade, the Tender Hands, and so did leaves. Fish touched the blade with their noses. Sticks bumped off of it. Nothing in the river was harmed by the blade, no matter how directly it touched it. Masamune pulled his blade from the current and Muramasa laughed.

"'OLD MAN!' He exclaimed. 'You call that a sword? It can't even cut leaves! I will show you a real sword!'" With that, Muramasa copied his master, with very different results from his own sword One Thousand Cold Nights. Leaves were cut, fish lost their heads and their blood in the river, sticks were sliced in half. When Muramasa pulled his blade out of the river the Monk promptly pronounced Masamune the winner. 'BUT WHY?' Demanded Muramasa."

"This is what the monk said. 'Your blade was indeed powerful, but it was undiscerning, it was just as happy cutting down butterflies as severing heads. A discerning blade is only a threat to those that truly have wickedness in their hearts, it raises itself in defense of the helpless, the weak, and the betrayed and those who deserve its Master's protection.'"

"Muramasa ran off in disgrace, vowing revenge. To this day, blades created by Muramasa are cursed to a life of blind destruction and vengeance. They attract the wicked, the undiscerning, and they are cursed. They will not go back into their sheathes without tasting blood, even if that blood is of its owner.

"The curse of Muramasa is a passive enchantment into all blades created from the system I use." Saya told the two men. "An object comes from its blacksmith neutral, and takes on the character of its owner much like a shinigami's zanpakuto. But on a far more disorganized and primal level. If Magneto raises the blade I create for him with cold blooded or vengeful intent it will require blood to be returned to the blade. While this curse would not punish his son for his father's ill intent, it may damage you sir, add to the powers of the arrancar, the backfire from a blade such as the ones I can create, and you could end up risking your life. Are you willing to become a martyr to protect Mutants from hollows Magneto? Remember, its not their lives you're fighting for, its their souls FREEDOM. Death is the least damage they can endure. If they die and are not turned, are doomed to oblivion in the hollow's belly, then they are /lucky./" Saya said grimly. "I will not let my work fall into your hands Magneto unless you are willing to acknowledge the Achilles heel they carry within them and /accept/ the consequences. You are both important allies of the Gatekeepers I will not let either of you come to harm from something /I/ created. But I cannot protect either of you from every injury that results from these swords, and if I may say so Professor, I believe a pole arm is better for you than a sword."

"I have no choice but to take this risk." Magneto stood up. "I may not be out for everyone's protection, I only want to protect Mutants, and my son, from harm from these hollows! If we are their prey, then I will be the prey that bites BACK."

"Fighting spirit I would expect from the avenger of Mutant Kind." Saya smiled. "And you Professor. You will warn your x-men of the danger in using my work? The curse stays activated on the blade. If triggered, it will not go away with the killing intent, they will be marked FOREVER by the stain of Muramasa's curse."

"I will inform them of the risks." Xavier replied. "Thank you Gwen, Saya."

"Have your men be trained in the way of Kendo. Your women too. Shit, Kurt will probably screw up the grip." Gwen grunted. "I have paperwork to do you two, I know death being a beurocracy may strike you as bizzare, but thats the way it is."

"you help us both, but you won't join us." Magneto clucked as he moved to leave.

"I'm a shinigami, I'm allowed to bring balance, I am not allowed to join out and out rebellions unless the fate of all souls is at stake by doing so. Not just those of Mutants."

"Charles, I want to see what this strange "Fullbring" ability can do in the girl, are you coming with us?"

"yes." He smiled and waved goodbye to Gwen before he was gone.

**Masamune and Muramasa were a lot like you and Magneto. **Seiryuu said quietly.

"And wielding the blades of Masamune's design, I pray that each of your sides will find their correct Way." Gwen muttered quietly, looking out the window after the two men. "oooooh Magnus, there is no other Mutant I know who is more likely to become a hollow upon their death than you. But Charles, you may be welcome in the halls of /our/ school upon your death. The Seireitei would be honored to call you one of its Brothers."

The scene faded out to one that the Professor had seen with cerebro's satilite feed. Gwen had Jean and Jubilee slung over each shoulder, dragon parts growing from her body at a rapid rate as she transformed. Wonderweiss was in pursuit. He could hear her thoughts. _Wonderweiss's got to be going after Jean, Aizen knows she's a class 5 mutant and if I unleash my reiatsu now, my power will smother poor little Jubilee. No... I have to take this hit. "_GO JEAN, GET YOUR FRIEND OUT OF HERE!" _Their presence is hindering my ability to protect them. Yet another instance of my power becoming a threat to those I want to keep from harm. Chhhhsttt, how can I be so pessimistic? I've been shot, tortured, blasted, played games with, I mean... Wonderweiss is a halfwit, he's only able to do what his power commands him to do._

_Pathetic._

Gwen turned up the music in her mind. A massively loud and joyful guitar. Oreta awai tsubasa kimi wa tsukoshi ao sugiru sora ni tsukareta dakesa, mou dareka no teme ja nakute, jibun no tame ni warette ii yo.

As Gwen transformed and Jean fled with Jubilee, the air around her began to ripple. The wind picked up and she roared as Wonderweiss clung to her, guitars blasting Alones by Aquatimez in her head. _I may not have chosen to fight in this war, but I will go to the ends of the earth, endure any pain... _"I'LL GO TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH SO THAT INNOCENT PEOPLE DON'T HAVE TO FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHHHHTTT!" Gwen roared. BOOM!

The cero blast sent her flying as Masamune ascended from the ground to rejoin the battle.

**For almost ten thousand years, shinigami have been given the responsibility of caring for the souls of men, fighting an enemy they cannot see so that they may know peace. She could no more allow Jean to die than she could let the Other Magneto be turned into a hollow by the arrancars that attacked him. But a traitor has gathered an army and overwhelmed them. An emissary was sent to teach Mutants how to protect themselves, with the expectation they would teach others of their kind and hope that they would act on behalf of both themselves, and normal human beings who cannot see the unseen threat before them. Her job, and the job of the humans and shinigami sent with her, is to prepare the unarmed and unalerted. Across the world their call reaches, to any Mutant willing to step up, any hero willing to take up a weapon and fight!**

Then Masamune's voice. _My motto Gwen-sempai, is protect the innocent and they live for a day, teach the innocent to protect themselves and they live a long life. For this, I am willing to let anyone who will throw his lot in with mine benefit from a lifetime of training. Fortune favors the well prepared._

And Flash Angel's... _My powers took the form they did for a reason, Saint Michael the archangel, defend me in battle, be my protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. Upon this blade forged from love I pray, MAY THE POWER OF MY HEART SEE ME THROUGH!_

And the girl Xavier hadn't gotten the name of yet. _My shinigami powers came from a twisted heart, but I will turn the evil that created them into a power worthy of the name "Soul Reaper." I will set aside my desire for vengeance to help fight a war I know they can't win alone. But... my desire to be avenged still burns. Itsumade, itsumade, how long must I suffer? (2) _

And Gwen herself. _I will fight so that others need not suffer. I will jump in the way of ceros and bullets, and bankais and gillians and endure all the pain, so that others need not._

* * *

With that, Professor Charles Xavier awoke back in the infirmary. "That was very interesting."

"WELL?" Wolverine leaned in. "Spill it professor, what'd the overpowered girly do?"

"Back there, she held back her power because if unleashed at that close range, there was a good chance it would smother Jubilee." Professor Xavier said quietly. Jubilee grimaced from the hospital bed, clearly not happy with that assessment. "I saw some of the opponents she faced, some she knew. She's capable of taking on some of our most powerful enemies on an even keel. From what I'm given to understand, they've been fighting for years with an army full of those creatures and they are far further from human than any of us can imagine. She calls them hollows, creatures that consume souls. They like eating Mutants because we have more power than normal people."

"chhhht, some logic." Wolverine snorted.

"Fascinating." Beast mused from where he was filling out medical charts for the injured.

"They're ghosts Hank. Its a war between ghosts." Professor Xavier shook his head slightly. "That girl, some of her friends are strong enough to tear buildings down with a slash of their blades. They came here to warn us of the hollows and teach us how to defend ourselves. Thats not all, I was alerted to paralel universes, with alternate versions of ourselves and some with abilities we never could have imagined. The last time we faced something this complicated..."

"... was when Jean got the phoenix." Cyclops finished.

"... oh really, and how were the alternate versions of us?" Gambit was very curious now.

"I only saw alternates of myself and Magneto. From what I saw and could gather the other me and the other Magneto visited Gwen and Masamune asking for special tools. I know Magneto's body language, the other him was stressed more than I'd seen in a /long/ time."

"Something that stresses out Magneto is really bad..." Storm shook her head. "So the other versions of us have fought these things?"

"And nearly been killed, from what I gather the girl was berating the other Magneto for getting hurt in battle against an individual called "Grimmjaw." I also saw the place they come from and what this Grimmjaw fellow looks like. We know about the astral realm that exists paralel to ours, this was similar, but slightly more orderly, desert as far as they eye can see and always night time. The other realm, where our visitor is from is called Soul Society."

"how much else could you tell, what did Seiryuu show you?" Jean grimaced as she sat too far up and aggravated her wounds.

"Just insights into their personalities... Masamune has a decidedly proactive approach, while Gwen..." he inclined his head at the girl. "Dedicated her life to protecting other people, some of whom she cares deeply for, from the horrors of what she's fought. Flash Angel has a deep faith in a higher power and looks to saint michael to be her guide. The final one, I wasn't able to get her name, came by her powers through being experimented on, and has temporarily set aside her desire for revenge on the people who did it to her to help others."

Gwen groaned slightly. "Morrigan... her psudonym... its Morrigan..." She grunted. "God I'm groggy, may fall a... zzzzzzzzz..."

"Came to for a minute. I'll note it on the chart." Beast said with a smile. "For such a young one she's definately stubborn."

* * *

"Okay guys." Ichigo sighed, in a wooded grove not far from the mansion, handing out lists to the others in his party. "I got a list of people we need to contact and warn. Rukia since your zanpakuto has an advantage in the snow, I'm giving you Alpha Flight. Go to Canada, they're part of the military there so be careful. Morgan, you're going down to warn the Morelocks about Aizen. I'm counting on your navigational ability and your better senses. Not to mention you're a vizard, to us your people used to be as reviled as they. I'm hoping that will help them be more sympathetic to us. Renji, I need you to track down the Avengers, they've been inactive for awhile so be prepared not to find anything got it?"

"hai."

"What about you?"

"I need to track down one Spider Man." Ichigo got a huge grin on his face. "And I'm wondering if it would be rude to ask for an autograph."

Saya burst out laughing. "Saya, you and Alex go to see Professor Xavier. Offer to heal their wounded team members and help them get organized. Saya you have the equipment to set up Masamune's enchanted forge right?"

"haiiiiiii." Saya said cheerfully. "But I think its better we put out a reiatsu trail and see if they can find us. oooooh, a smithing I will go, a smithing I will go..." she said in a sing song voice and kicking up her heals.

"And Alex, see if you can teach any of them reiatsu healing, its a technique anyone can use if they have the right personality, so there should be at least one of their number able to do it."

"Any word from Kailai?" Renji asked worriedly. "She's got a bunch of Rookie shinigami with her..."

"Seiji and Mika are far from rookies." Ichigo grinned. "They're rookies to us, but not to battle."

* * *

Ulquiorra was not pleased with the reception he'd gotten, and that was how Kailai liked it. The group had formed a defensive line outside of Magneto's latest base of operations. She and Lance blasted boulders up at the espada, which he'd had to dodge while being harassed by Seiji and Mika. Kailai had transformed fully into Genbu's form, a turtle made of stone with a tree on its back.

"hahahahaha! What was it Offspring said?" Mika asked as she rattled energy bullets from Judah's gatling form at Ulquiorra. "WITH A THOUSAND LIES AND A GOOD DISGUISE, HIT 'EM RIGHT BETWEEN THE EYES!"

"Dance fucker dance!" Judah agreed. "POE'S HORROR!" He shot massive amounts of crows from the barrel of his gun form at Ulquiorra.

The Espada thought he'd dodged them, but one knicked his foot. Instantly the world around him turned to fire and blood and he could hear a heart pounding in his ears, loud enough to deafen him. He yelled, falling from the sky as the hallucinatory effects of the attack forced him to live first hand through several works of Edgar Allen Poe.

CRUNCH!

He hit the ground. "heheheheheheh." Mika grinned. "SHUNKO ANIMATION!"

Mika was covered in bandages from her nose down to her hips, almost like a mummy, and they sealed in her power. Over the bandages, she wore a red native american style version of the second division's backless shihakusho. On her back was a butterfly obi bow tied from the bandages. The bow glowed white, grew, expanded and extended to grab Ulquiorra. On her right arm, a gatling gun, from which occasionally a voice could be heard. On her left arm a large energy blade made from shunko formed. The back blasted off of her bandages with the release of her power and the pieces of cloth stiffened with white energy, sharpening into razor sharp projectiles.

Instantly everything jacked up, including her flash step. "HEH! I was holding back you bastard!"

"I will join in too." Seiji sighed. "SHUNKO!"

Seiji and Mika were distant relatives of Yoruichi and Soifon, and it showed in their personalities. Seiji had the signature Shihouin dark skin, purple hair and golden eyes. He was wearing a black tuxedo with a back end rigged to come off when shunko was activated and be attached later. A tophat adorned his head and he carried a matching wooden walking stick and a half skullmask. A long black cape completed his outfit.

The back burst off, and the shunko formed into two ragged bat like wing outlines made from energy. Seiji grinned, sheathing his Katana and balling up his fists before punching Ulquiorra with all his might. "KAGE KUKKEN RYUU!" The burst of energy and blunt force damage hammered on Ulquiorra's liver and kidneys, and fatal damage was only prevented by the Espada's hierro.

Ulquiorra began to power up an oscuras cero, at the same time his form began to shift. Kailai looked back briefly towards the citadel. _Please Magneto-san, sense the battle and come to investigate! Hurry before you're pulling our corpses off the ground!_

At that moment she missed the flash of magenta colored material and armor up above her. The form circled, scrutinizing the battle carefully and trying to stay out of Kailai's and the others' line of sight.

Then the cero oscuras was let loose. Kailai raised a massive wall of earth up higher and higher. Lance rushed forwards, boosting the power of the attack. The Cero Oscuras was so hot it burned the earth they were manipulating to glass, and then suddenly earth and molten glass rose up over Ulquiorra in a wave and crashed down on him. Black cero energy burst out from either side of the attack sparking wildfires and then...

A garganta opened under the wall of earth, sucking it and the molten glass into oblivion. The garganta closed, and Ulquiorra was standing there in his segunda etapa form. "Lance... this may turn out badly. That is segunda etapa, Ulquiorra's most powerful transformation. The last time he used this, he nearly killed Ichigo Kurosaki."

"Uh ooooooh."

Magneto was descending cautiously closer. He could see a faint figure, flashes of dark hair and pale skin and two glowing green eyes, but it wasn't clear. What was clear was that whomever these strange people were, they were working hard to fight against it.

The two green eyes looked up at him, narrowing into inhuman slits. Then the creature launched itself at Magneto. A burst of EM energy failed to repel the attacker. And when the full force of Ulquiorra's spiritual pressure hit... it was all Magneto could do to keep himself from being crushed let alone attack.

"LANCE START FIGHTING THOSE FOREST FIRES!" Kailai yelled. She sprouted massive wooden spikes from the ground, branches that began to rip and tear at Ulquiorra, trying to catch him, to slow him down.

Multiple pulses of EM were failing to shake off his attacker, and that for once in his life struck fear into Magneto's heart, except... he was being dragged away. "FUCKIN A!" Mika growled.

CRASH Ulquiorra thrust Magneto through his own building. "Stay out of my way human. This is beyond your power to combat."

/NOW/ Magneto could see Ulquiorra clearly. Huge spears of iron rose from the floor, sharpened to a point, put throughout the place as hidden armaments to help amplify his power. Ulquiorra powered up brilliant green spears of energy. "tcctt, Mutant trash. ALL YOU HUMANS ARE TRASH!" Ulquiorra snarled. "TRASH TRASH ALL I SEE EVERYWHERE IS TRASH!" He roared.

Green energy and huge wrought iron and steel bands danced and clashed midair as Ulquiorra and Magneto did battle. Magneto knew it wasn't enough, and that just made him angrier. Ulquiorra grabbed Magneto by the throat using his tail and growled at him. "listen well human, if you know whats good for you, you WON'T defend Charles Xavier from my master. You'll sit back and let him die, or I will shove a new hole in your BODY!" He snarled.

"You and what army?" Magneto sneered. He was rewarded by Ulquiorra bashing his body repeatedly against the wall.

"I am an arrancar, while one of us is capable of devastating an entire human city, many are capable of bringing the world to their knees. I am part of the Espada, the ten most dangerous arrancars in existance. We are not only generals, but cold trained killers. ALL humans, mutant and normal must bow before our Master, Aizen, or suffer his wrath." Ulquiorra kept shoving Magneto repeatedly into a wall with his tail. "I am arrancar number four, Ulquiorra Cifer, to me, all of human kind is trash. A few clicks one way or the other in the genetic code does not elevate you above the garbage, it only makes you slightly more visible in the crap heap of planet earth! My aspect of death is nothingness... and it is nothingness to which I will throw any who resist Aizen-sama." One last good hard CRACK and Ulquiorra let Magneto go.

Ulquiorra as he went, used cero to blast the whole top five floors off of Magneto's citidel. "Ah, the sky, my favorite emptiness." Then he took off, flying away from the spot.

Magneto was barely on the edge of consciousness. "Hurry! Get Unohan-taichou! HURRY!" Four pairs of costumed feet were running towards him. "you're going to be alright, we're calling a healer to tend your wounds... just hang on..."

And darkness.

* * *

1. See Inu-Yasha  
2. From the Japanese version of the fury, the Itsumaden, which is born from the souls of dead plague victims who were improperly buried. They attack the village they lived in in life shouting "Itsumade itsumade!" which means "how long? how long?" implying that burying them will ease their desire for vengeance.


	3. Chapter 3

Gwen's soul pager rang with the report, once, twice. "can't reach it." Jubilee tried to reach Gwen's cellphone to shut it up except...

… the phone stopped ringing...

"whew."

Then the hell butterfly flew in. "Fukutaichou, wake up, immediately!" A teenage boy's voice called from the creature.

"oye!" Jubilee tried to get the creature's attention. Jean Grey was sleeping off her wounds. Beast had had to give her pain medication, she couldn't sleep with the pain from the fracture to her arm. "Hey over here! The doctor sedated her."

"hmmm?" The hell butterfly fluttered over to Jubilee. "I am Izuru Kira of Squad three, one of Gwen's fellow lieutenants. I will relay to the commander that she is in the hospital. You are?"

"you don't seem surprised, I'm Jubilee I'm a student here. Got out of the fight she was hurt in with a bonked head and some cracked ribs."

"This happens a lot. What exactly happened?"

"She shielded me and Jean Grey from a blonde haired hollow she called Wonderweiss."

"oh, the /power sealer./ He is far above a meer hollow. Be careful, he has the ability to seal his target's powers and he is triggered to violent action by the use of powers in his vicinity. Hold your fire and be silent when he is near, flee him without making a sound."

"I understand." Jubilee told him. "Is that... is she gonna be okay?"

"Jubilee was it? Gwen has had far worse than that. She knew all she could do was throw herself in the way or she'd risk hurting you and your friend. I have seen her fight for three days without rest, collapse and sleep on Death's Door for over a week. She is nowhere near her limit." Jubilee could hear Izuru's amusement. "Take care of my comrade please, she is one of our best and brightest. Oh... I forgot to mention, you should see if your friends can find Masamune and Flash Angel to help you. They can heal you and your friend Jean in just a couple of days." Izuru chuckled. "Watch out for Wonderweiss, and for the Espada."

The hell butterfly disappeared before Jubilee could question her. "I brought you some magazines Petit..." Gambit came in at that very moment.

"GAMBIT! Gwen's friends tried to contact her! They used this black butterfly thing!"

"What did he say mon petit? I'll get the professor." Jubilee picked up the stack of magazines and sighed. "He said his name was Izuru Kira and he was the lieutenant of squad three. He wanted to contact her I told her she was sedated. He said she'd had a lot worse wounds before. That she'd fought for three days straight once! He said that her friends Masamune and Flash angel could heal us in just a few days."

"Den I will tell the Professor mon petit. For now amuse yourself." Gambit told her with a chuckle. He ran off, passing the message along to Professor Xavier, who in turn set up search shifts. He made certain to seperate Wolverine and Gambit and Cyclops into seperate teams so that they would focus on the mission and do a little less bickering. Their last one had nearly destroyed the rec room.

* * *

In the sedative induced sleep, Jean heard a deep deep mental voice humming a melody. Then the dragon apparition that had identified itself as Seiryuu appeared. "Hmmm, it is not here..."

"What are you looking for?" Jean asked curiously.

"I had heard that a phoenix spirit inhabited your body in a seal, was I wrong?"

"The phoenix hasn't been here for some time now. She was set free. She's out in space somewhere." Jean chuckled.

The dragon hummed, and Seiryuu's song took on a slightly more somber note. "I had come to pay my respects to the sister of an old friend. For me it is like, placing flowers on the graves of the deceased. But if she is free again, then I can continue this mission with joy in my heart." He said quietly. He looped his tail around the girl's body for a moment, and he gave off the most peaceful sensation as he sang. His form slowly, delicately faded from Jean's mind. "How grateful I am that you and Charles can hear me... live and when the proper time comes die, in peace child."

He was gone, and Jean slept peacefully once more. "Drink with me..." Jean mumbled in her sleep. (1)

It was Xavier he visited next. He heard the melody of a very familiar song in his mind, and Seiryuu's wings wrapping around his chair. **I will stand watch over the school tonight, I sense much combat about in the world. I have blessed another place of learning that stands in this place in another world with many of the same names, the same drama. I am not a stranger to this place.**

Xavier could sense vaguely, Seiryuu's mind floating up to the roof and spreading his wings, and his power with them, over the manor to protect the place. "Such an odd creature. I thought dragons were avaricious Seiryuu."

**Lies and slander by the catholic church. We are as humans are, capable of being brought to good or evil and often tempted between both. Good dragons are the greatest guardians one can find, evil ones are avaricious and more. And its not always easy to tell which is which. I will stand watch over the school and protect it tonight, there are many battles in the land.**

"I see, thank you very much for your support." The dragon released his mental touch and flew to the roof of the school where he kept watch that night.

* * *

Ichigo moved over the darkened city streets searching for Spiderman. "Where are you, come out and talk to me..."

A red and blue booted foot shot towards him.

Ichigo dodged Spiderman's kick swiftly. "Your power is GIVING ME A HEADACHE." Spiderman complained in annoyance.

"look, I'll try to tone it down, I have trouble controlling my spiritual pressure sometimes! I've been looking for you. I'm looking for a creature with a mask on its face and a hole in its chest."

"A creature? Hmmm..." The hero thought. "If I recall, one of them attacked MJ the other day. I could see the thing like a transparent ghost at first, and then it turned solid when one of its blows actually hit me. But MJ couldn't see a thing! Anyway, I got her to safety but it kept growing its limbs back and it couldn't stay stuck in my webbing for long. The strands kept hardening and shattering to pieces!"

"You've got to smash its mask, that will kill it. One more thing, my sister Karin gets headaches like that when one of them is nearby. Its an evolutionary defense mechanism some people have. That means there might be another around here."

"you sure it wasn't your power?"

"I came here to warn you. I'm not a danger right?"

"yeah."

"And your spider senses can sense danger right?"

"Duh."

"Then how come your spider senses didn't go off when I came...?" Spiderman jerked in the middle of Ichigo's sentence.

"... look out!" He shoved Ichigo out of the way. "Wow, looks like you were right." The hollow was enormous and grotesque with huge tentacles and a lizard like head.

"Stand back and watch carefully, I'll teach you how to fight them."

* * *

"Thank you so much Vindicator." Rukia grinned winningly at the Alpha Flight members. "It shouldn't take more than two weeks to give you a crash course, but to fight hollows expertly takes years of practice. You should always seek to improve during our training and after."

"Thats fine, I'll have my wife set up a training area. Anybody warning our old buddy Logan there's gonna be a party? He'll be mad if we don't tell him."

"one of my colleagues is at the school. She's injured for now. But they've already had an attack."

"Not Logan surely."

"naw, the girls Jean Grey and Jubilee broke a few bones. Don't worry, your friend Logan is under our protection."

Vindicator nodded. "Welcome to Alpha Flight Rukia, do you have a code name we can use?"

"hmm, my zanpakuto spirit is a yuki onna... and this is the land of snow, yes, Yuki is fine." Rukia grinned, the two shaking hands.

"Right, hey guys, lets get a room ready for our guest!" Vindicator called to his teammates as he turned to let Rukia into the large group of cabins they'd started using as their base.

BOOM... "HHHHHHROAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRR I AM WENDIGO, HOLLOW RULER OF THE ICE ELEMENT!" The hollow was an enormous icy cat with a mask decorated in native american characters that read "death."

"I'll be tardy for that room and meal." Rukia smirked at Vindicator as she drew her blade. "watch carefully."

* * *

"HELOOOOOOOOO!" Renji bellowed into the empty hallways of the Avengers' old headquarters. "Huh..." He could see a large column in the middle of the nearest room. He entered it slowly... "its a tomb..." he gasped. "For a man living..."

The things left around the room indicated that people had come and gone from the place repeatedly, dead flowers and cards. Large print messages saying "We will never forget."

He brushed aside the dust and gasped. He knew this was one of his targets in the chamber. "So what, he's just stuck here at an empty table? Unable to move on? Thats not fair! My teaching has taught me that ALL souls deserve a peaceful rest! Why keep him here huh?" Renji demanded of the empty hall.

The man inside was Captain America, the original American hero. Renji sighed. "Well, as long as this is his grave. I might as well pay my respects." He got down on one knee in front of the tube and muttered a sutra before pulling the straw hat he'd been given as weather protection from the rain pouring down outside down over his eyes. "I don't think I'm gonna find anything here. I'd better call Ichigo." He left, standing in the doorway of what was once the base of a group of vaunted defenders. "Renji to Ichigo." he called through the Hell butterfly.

"urgggg, Go ahead Renji, just got ahold of Spiderman whats your copy?"

"There's nobody here, the avengers old base has now become Captain America's tomb. I am sorry."

"Tomb? Have you confirmed that?"

"Yes, he's in some kind of stasis chamber. Sorry buddy I've struck bupkiss."

"We'll have a protection barrier placed over the spot. A man that dedicated deserves to rest in peace." Ichigo said quietly. "Come home and stand guard over the manor. Izuru sent me a message saying that Gwen was wounded defending two of the X-men from harm."

"Alright." Renji looked into the rain. "i'm going to leave a message outside." He reached into his shihakusho for the spray can he'd been using for signaling.

Days later one Tony Stark, come to check the equipment sustaining his friend would find Renji's message.

_"To whomever finds this,_

_Look for creatures with masks on their faces and holes in their chests. The mask is the key, smash it hard in a single blow and the beasts will be no more. Be careful, they are killers. I came looking to warn the men known as the Avengers and found they were no more. So I'm leaving this message for whoever finds it. Find these creatures, known as the hollows, and defend others from them._

_Nuekage."_

"What in the world." he shook his head. "Some crazy musta got in looking for us. Ah well... I got work to do."

* * *

Morgan was using kido to light her journey through the Morelocks tunnels when a small green figure ran into her. He squeaked in fear, and Morgan's light revealed a small Mutant green all over dressed in a jacket, jeans and a hat.

"Its okay. I came here to have some words with a woman named Callisto..."

"She is fighting in the tunnels up ahead! A monster nearly killed me!"

Morgan drew her sword. "Walk fearlessly in darkness, MORRIGAN!" With the release of her shikai, her blade transformed into a massive hammer with a chakram disk on a retractable string attached to the end. Her outfit changed into an enormous crow mask with long gorgeous plumes and a black leotard with a skirt of black feathers and the same.

Her flash step carried her forward heedless of any dark or danger down the Morelocks' tunnels.

The hollow had Callisto on the ground, paw raised for the killing blow. Morgan raised her hammer and smashed its mask with a single blow then turned, extending a hand. "hey there, my name is Morrigan, thanks for finding that hollow for me, mind giving me a hand cleansing these tunnels? My senses show there are more here." Morgan said with a sweet smile on her face.

"Thank you... I will in exchange for some answers."

"Then you shall have them Lady Callisto, come."

* * *

A light in the mountains drew Gambit and Beast in their search for Masamune aka Saya Labeaux Kuchiki and Alexandria Argent aka Flash Angel. "I think I hear music..."

"Indeed, though I haven't heard the song be..." the music changed. "aaaah, far more tasteful, the last one sounded cynical, dying dumb? The singer must be talking about Television." Beast chuckled. (2)

"it sounds like Japanese."

"hai." Beast chuckled. "Les miserables, interesting, Miss Masamune is both a cynic and a Hugo fan. Tell me Gambit, I know you are cajun, do you speak any french? Les Mis is best experienced in its native language."

"A few phrases." Gambit chuckled. "Professor offered me a language program, I just haven't found the time."

"I can sing that song in five languages including French." Beast couldn't contain himself, raising his lilting tenor to sing. _"A la volonté du peuple, Et à la santé du progrès, Remplis ton cœur d'un vin rebelle, Et à demain, ami fidèle, Nous voulons faire la lumière, Malgré le masque de la nuit, Pour illuminer notre terre, Et changer la vie."_ He called out into the darkness.

A familiar voice called a reply, roughened by the smoke for the forge, and now Beast could hear the sound of blacksmithing beneath her song. They were moving through the darkness of the night towards the forge's light.

The response was in Japanese. _"Will you join in our crusade who will be strong and stand with me somewhere beyond the barricade is there a world you want to see. So come and join in the fight that will let you be freeeeeeeeee..." _

"You see Gambit? Good music needs no translation." Beast pulled aside the final branches to reveal Masamune and Flash Angel's camp. There were four tents, mess, medical, girls and boys and a forge built from rough stone and iron.

Flash angel was polishing a sword made from an enormous piece of flint. Then the sword dissolved, as did the shield next to it and transformed into a pair of phoenixes. These were not like the giant space bird that had settled itself in Jean's mind. They were much smaller and not made of fire. Their eyes were a gorgeous blue color. She smiled scratching their heads tenderly. The two crooned. "Such beautiful creatures phoenixes are. Their songs embolden the downtrodden, their tears... a cure for poison. Their feathers, channel for the powers of the world around us." The girl smiled.

Her hair was long and blonde, but when Beast looked closer, he realized she was androgenous. "My dear... I can barely tell your gender."

Alex chuckled. "Caught me there. I'm transexual, male to female. Momma won't let me get the operation till I'm 18." Alex chuckled.

"Ah, Flash Angel dear, you will find no ridicule from me." Beast smiled. "We came to ask for your help to heal our friends, and your friend."

"We figured Waverunner would be safe at your manor." Masamune replied. "I need to do a test run of Masamune the First's enchanted forge. When the word goes out, many mutants who can't create hard enough slash or blunt damage to kill hollows will need a weapon. I will not deprive them of the chance to defend themselves."

"Are you sure they won't abuse the power you grant?"

"That is their choice. I can only warn them of the danger. If you could force someone to choose good over evil, then they become neither." Masamune replied. "This process was created by the first Masamune, it is powered on magic, not the powers of the mutants who wield the sword. It is designed to create a tool to channel their powers through to inflict sharp damage. In other words, a tool specially designed to amplify your powers immensely. Each must be custom made for its wielder." Saya was hammering away at the forge.

"So instead of protecting, your choice is to help people protect themselves."

"I have been taught the ways of survival since I was a small child. It is fine to work together when you have the upper hand, but what if the enemy gets the upper hand on you? Will you wait for your fellow X-men to rescue you or will you try to rescue yourself? What if they do not make it in time no?" Saya pointed out.

"I do not doubt my companions. Why do you?"

"I do not doubt your companions, I doubt lady Fate, she is a fickle beast. Sometimes circumstances outside of our control call for a little bit of self reliance." Masamune continued at her forge. "My goal is not to gain power, but rather the Empowerment of those who would stand up for their own defense." She said smartly.

"I hear your accent mon cherie, are you also cajun?" Gambit leaned a bit closer to the forge.

"half, my father's a grim reaper."

"A WHAT?" The two leapt back.

"You heard me." Saya smiled. "My father fell in love with a mortal woman. But when she was pregnant with me, my mother was attacked by a hollow. My father saved her, but the damage was done. I was born with a special spiritual mutation known as Fullbring. Unlike mutants, Fullbrings have common attacks and abilities as well as unique ones." Saya smiled. She crooked her finger at a book sitting on a nearby stand. It glowed a pale unearthly blue and floated towards her.

"A fullbring can alter the matter of the world around them, particularly items they have affection for. Mine is the book of masamune, when I draw something in it, and write a mixture of instructions and mathematical equations I can bring the drawing to life." From the book issued forth a drawing of an enormous winged dog. "These creatures can be summoned forth to assist me, or others, they can come forward in numbers in the dozens." Saya scratched the dog behind the ears affectionately. "And each has a different special effect. But the book is only so big."

"So you have an affection for art?" Beast asked, approaching the dog.

"Yes, I have been able to enchant other pieces of art." Masamune chuckled. "I made one to guard a church, to thank a nun for her kindness."

"I see. Quite a beautiful gift mon cherie, I am sure the nun was quite happy with her protector aye?" Gambit asked. He was peering down at the two tiny phoenixes. "so much smaller dan the last one."

Alex chuckled. "A long time ago, an immortal witch and a mortal wizard married. They were the happiest couple in the old west but for one thing. The immortal witch would have to live on when her husband died. She could not do it. So the witch told her husband. "When I die, I will seal our souls into these phoenixes, and transform them into weapons to protect our children. We will live on eternally inside of them." And that is exactly what she did. There are others whos ancestors had the same done to them, and inherited the ability to do the same, transform into weapons because a witch's soul was used to mutate their ancestors' souls. (3) We call these humans 'Magic Weapons.' My adopted cousins and I extensively use their skills to aid us."

Masamune cut in and smiled. "Yes, the mask I wear was derived from the great wizard that fought against their creation. He believed that we have no right to take the life of one in order to forcibly transform another. His name was Eibon and I do my best to honor his work."

"You said the forge was made by Masamune the first. Then you are not the original Masamune?"

"no." Saya chuckled. "The original lived in Japan a long time ago, by all accounts, he held the same beliefs about power as Professor Xavier. He felt that a blade should only be raised with a defensive intent. To this day if one raises a blade made by this forge with the intention of cold blooded revenge, the wielder becomes cursed and the sword he wields must taste blood before returning to its sheathe, even if it is his own. My father Anonri Kuchiki is Masamune the second. I am Masamune the third." She smiled. "I am part of Argent Clan's green squadron and my family has been declared a branch of the Prestigious clan of Soul reapers, the Kuchikis." Saya smiled behind her mask at Beast.

A loud ring came from the mess tent. "Excuse me fellows, I need a drink anyway." Saya, aka Masamune, plunged her work into the water to quench it and then ran for the mess tent.

Alex got up. "We were expecting a call about now. Several infact."

Beast and Gambit followed Alex and Saya to the mess tent. "Some friends of mine were ordered to warn some acquaintences of yours. Some of the individuals on our list though, you may not know."

The video call participants qued up for the meeting. "Heya guys! I got here just in time, a hollow seemed to think Alpha Flight was an easy meal! They weren't counting on the snow up here in Canada to give me an advantage. I have a code name too now, Yuki!" Rukia's face had an enormous grin on it.

"Thats great Rukia, I managed to get ahold of Spider man with little problem. He's got the same issue with hollow sensing as my sister, massive headache when one of them gets near. He seemed to think I caused it until the hollow that had been stalking us attacked." Ichigo reported.

"I couldn't get ahold of the Avengers, unfortunately Captain America is on ice. Frozen cryogenically. Unless the twelfth can work some kind of miracle we'll have no assistance from that quarter." Renji replied. "I am sorry."

"Its okay Renji you couldn't help it if Cap was on ice." Morgan grinned. "I got ahold of the Morelocks. Such a flight of fancy they had in choosing their name. Callisto is on board, she and her group are on guard for any hollows that attempt to hide in the sewers."

"Where did their name come from anyway?" Gambit scratched his head as he listened to the conversation. "I always wondered."

"Elementary my dear Gambit, from H.G. Wells classic story "The Time Machine."

"I have assembled the enchanted Forge. But the X-men need me to heal their comrade. I'll leave in the morning. If I do not get this steel ready to hammer by the time you're finished, I won't have enough material to equip all the volunteers we'll need."

"You need to go tonight Saya." Izuru told her. "Sorry to butt in guys."

"What is it Izuru?"

"I just got word from Unohana-taichou, Ulquiorra attacked Magneto's latest in a string of castles. She's got him in the ICU."

"WHAT?" That was everyone, Beast and Gambit included.

"When she got to him he had multiple contusions around his neck suggesting Ulquiorra tried to strangle him, there were bash marks as well."

"No, thats not right. When I fought Ulquiorra he grabbed me by the neck and threw me as a defensive move. Izuru, tell that to Unohana. I'd have to look at the pictures from the crime scene but I'll bet Ulquiorra grabbed Magneto by the neck and bashed him into that wall."

"He blasted the entire top of the castle off. Five floors literally burned away."

"This is bad." Gambit muttered to Beast. "Whoever this Ulquiorra guy is, to do that much damage to Magneto /and/ whatever he's been roosting in. We both know his taste is for places locked down like fort..."

"kailai?"

"She and Lance didn't do too badly. Since she's the host for Genbu, she was able to amplify Lance's mutant abilities. Jacked it up past what he'd normally be able to accomplish. As for the others, Seiji and Mika proved that they are only Rookies to us, not to combat."

"Busting shit up is Mika's specialty. I want to see her throw Juggernaut. Just for kicks!"

"you mean like Gwen harbors the secret ambition of telepathically hacking a bunch of Sentinals and making them dance for her amusement?"

"I'd like to see her make them do gangnam style." Saya snickered. "Would serve the tin cans right and humiliate their creators."

"I can't believe the showboating you Argent clan folk do."

"I do not /showboat./" Saya told him. "Masamune helps others to help themselves. There is no showboating from my quarter but I /do/ wish that the boys would waste less material. They threw out some of their MREs last mission."

"Those things taste aweful Saya."

"They also have a five year shelf life, are light weight, and can protect our fighters from fainting with hunger. Humans with powers have a far higher metabolic rate than normal humans. Most humans need no more than thirty six hundred calories a day, less if they're inactive like sitting at a desk at an office job. But from spirit users to mutants, it typically takes three thousand to four thousand depending on the individual's powers. The record are the ninjas of the Akimichi clan, who use nearly five thousand calories a day when participating in regular combat." Saya ranted. "Food is a gift from the Gods it should not be wasted just because it tastes "bad.""

"Interesting, such determination over a few morsels. Surely you can get more MREs for your missions." Beast was quite taken aback.

"Civilization is constantly nine meals from anarchy, cutting the caloric intake of a man for thirty days and making him do a day's hard work is all it takes to induce thoughts of cannibalism and eating grass like a horse." Saya told Beast. "My job within the Argent clan is to get young warriors what they need to do their jobs and missions. For example, these blades I made were to help Mutants protect themselves and others, that is a job. I refuse to go for any approach other than the utmost efficiency."

Alex was continuing the video call. "Yes, yes right away Kira-fukutaichou." She logged off. "We're to barrier the camp and make it so that Beast alone can get back in until we return. We're going to Xavier's school for the gifted TONIGHT."

"I agree." Saya said quietly. "Flash Angel lets go."

* * *

Professor Xavier looked in on Jubilee around ten pm that night. "I came to check on our guest and on you."

"I'm doing fine, Gambit found me a bunch of girly magazines to read. He said if I put together a reading list he'd get them from the library in town for me."

The professor set a hand on Gwen's head, checking the shinigami to make sure she was well but he got an unexpected surprise.

**FLASH**

"your thoughts aren't too well guarded, you don't think the professor can do it can you?" Jean asked, curiousity in her voice.

A much younger Rogue was giggling at her. "Gwen sucks at thinkin quietly huh?"

"I'm saying he shouldn't get his hopes up, but with Unohana as his teacher, I think he'll get the basic idea quickly. The question is can a mutant learn a common spirit attack or not?" The group was standing at the edge of the infirmary.

A woman with two braids tied to the front was helping the other Xavier with some kind of medical training exercise. "you need to shift your senses Charles. You haven't separated your psychic senses from your soul's ability to sense reiatsu. But I believe your peaceful nature will allow you to make this technique work. I've seen pieces of the technique come out. Just a little more and you should have it."

Gwen smiled. "If anyone can teach an old Professor new tricks its Unohana-taichou, come on, lets leave them be. I heard Lance found a sweet looking cave the other day. Lets get the outdoor gear and go spelunking. If we get in trouble Jean can just call the Professor and tell him where we are."

**FLASH**

_I did not mean to pry child. Only to check on your welfare._

**I was always a loud thinker. It is my warm nature, building a barrier against others to me is the hardest thing in the world to accomplish. **

Professor Xavier chuckled and moved on. Clearly she hadn't intended to share the memory with him.

"What is it Professor?"

"Our friend is a very loud thinker, even sleeping. Its as if something is making her thoughts louder and more easily read."

"Professor we found them, and you're not going to like what's going on."

"One of our enemies, Ulquiorra, put Magneto in the hospital. He's in the ICU and stable but Unohana thinks he needs a lot of rest. A week at most, for her heal time that means he got a beating. There's contusion marks around his neck. One of our allies Ichigo Kurosaki thinks they were inflicted with Ulquiorra's tail, its prehensile, he thinks Ulquiorra used his tail to shove Magneto into the nearest wall face first." Masamune reported. "We need to have your fighters up as fast as possible. Ulquiorra attacking Magneto that viciously was a threat, both to try and keep him from assisting you and to warn you about resisting Aizen."

"Thank you for coming so quickly. I am grateful to you for your help."

"The order was handed down from the commander general and from my clan's leader. I cannot refuse either of them. Professor I must warn you my skills are more aligned to support your fighters. My role back home was to help young warriors get what they /need/ to do their job, no more, no less. By helping others learn how to care for themselves and giving them the tools to act on their own behalf, in my own way, I try to help others be more free."

"I see..." Xavier smiled. He sensed a forceful personality from Masamune, and one word that she'd made her guiding light "Efficiency."

Flash angel came in behind her. "The both of us are novices at healing, but together we should have your friends back on their feet soon."

"Yeah, where's Orihime when you need her huh?" Masamune chuckled.

"That girl shouldn't be made to overuse her powers just because her healing skill is so potent." Alex told Masamune. "Besides, Ulquiorra nearly killed her the last time they met. Its not a good idea for them to meet again. If he's going to appear more than once during this mission then we need to have a team that can hold their own. With the Demon Phoenixes and my cleansing magic I will be more than enough to handle him, /and/ I can heal."

"Who's this Orihime girl? A Mutant?"

"No, Orihime's abilities come from her soul not her DNA. She's a healer who works in and out of Karakura town in Japan. Her powers are unique in all the world. She doesn't just heal you, she makes it so that temporally your wound never existed. Her shield blocks any attack, denying it entry into her space. And her cutting technique severs the bonds between molecules, breaking down matter on the molecular level."

"Fascinating." Professor Xavier exclaimed as he listened to the explanation.

Saya and Alex moved to Gwen's side and their hands began to glow a pale green as they moved them over her body a few inches above her. "Yes, but her cutting attack is her only offensive technique, and its limited by her gentle nature. She isn't built for battle. Ulquiorra has a personal vendetta with her, as do a pair of lower level arrancars Loly and Menoly."

"Seiryuu didn't define those terms for me, only that it meant a type of hollow that looks somewhat human." Xavier told the two.

"You'd better hope the arrancars hold off a few weeks from attacking the manor Professor." Alex sighed as Gwen began to stir. "Arrancars are the most powerful of all hollow classes and very few of them can be reasoned with. The guy that put Magneto in that hospital is Ulquiorra Schiffer, the fourth Espada. The espada are the top ten most powerful arrancar and their ranks are determined only by right of combat."

"Someone say 'espada?'" Gwen groaned. "What's happened Alex tell me now..."

"Ulquiorra attacked Magneto, Unohana had to take him to the fourth."

Gwen just burst out laughing. "He's done exactly the opposite of what he should have done if he wanted to keep Magneto out of the fight! Kailai knows him better than I, but I am not blind to his stubborn obstinate nature!" _Ulquiorra must have decided to sabotage Aizen's efforts. But he may not have succeeded just yet. I will need to watch this situation carefully._

Professor Xavier stared at her a moment, and then smiled realizing what she meant. "I suspect so. But are you sure this Unohana person can handle him?"

"Unohana has made some of the most macho men I know wither with a glare." Gwen laughed. "All because they made too much noise in her hospital."

"Alright, for now rest while Flash Angel and I heal up Jubilee and Jean." Masamune turned away.

"We can begin tomorrow morning, a member of our team is at a symposium in Italy, he'll be returning then."

"Very well." Gwen rolled over to get some sleep. She wanted to get up and hunt hollows but she knew she needed it.

* * *

It was perhaps the smell of roasting meat that got through the sedative induced sleep that Magneto was resting in. Or it could have been a pair of young voices that were singing, but he was too tired, too dazed and weak to respond. But the aroma and the melody were comforting, and enough to let the vengeful adversary of the X-men sleep peacefully.

* * *

1. Seiryuu was singing "Drink with me" from Les Miserables. I saw the movie over the holidays, can't help myself. :)

2. Die dumb by Key of Awesome. Since this is the 90s, and Saya's world is in the 21st century, Beast would never have heard Ke$ha "Die young" though I doubt that its a parody would be lost on him.

3. See Soul eater.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: If whole parts of this chapter make no sense its because they were written past 11pm at night with portal 2 fanvids involving the space core and a human Wheatley and tiny human GlaDOS playing. And at that hour, everything wheatley does makes perfect sense, hence why parts of this chapter do not.

Oh and Careeee miiiiiaaaaa careee miiiaaaa... okay forcing myself to stop now.

Oh yes and editing this while portal froze. waiting for it to unfreeze. I blame my roommate 100% for getting me interested in playing it.

* * *

Gwen woke up the next morning to the smell of fresh bread and hot coffee. "oooooooh!" She stretched.

"That was the most amazing sleep I'd ever had!" Jubilee exclaimed blissfully. "I'm still achey a bit."

"you guys should be able to walk around, just don't work out too hard."

"Okay, Masamune and Flash Angel make a good team." Jean agreed as she stood. "I need a shower, see you girls later." The Telepath strode out of the room.

"Please tell me that coffee isn't somebody's private supply?" Gwen asked hopefully.

"But you're a teenager like me aren't you? What do you want with coffee?" Jubilee's head tilted. She'd had coffee at Starbucks, and while it was good, it wasn't /that/ good. She supposed it must be something she was too young to really /get/. I mean adults have /adult/ things just like teenagers have /teenage/ things right?

"In the soul society coffee is rare, and I'm not a teenger, I'm twenty five. Shinigami just age slower than humans do. It makes for some awkward social situations. You should have seen when Hitsugaya-taichou came to visit the Other X-men." Gwen giggled. "Kitty kept glomping him and calling him cute. And..."

"Kitty?"

"You have no mutant at this school by the name Kitty Pryde?"

Jubilee shook her head. "no."

"Damn... then defense will depend entirely on one Nightcrawler."

"he's at a symposium at the Vatican and he'll be back this morning!" Jubilee exclaimed. "Why? What do you have in mind?"

Gwen frowned. "When we in the soul society talk about tactics now adays, we have to incorporate many different fighting styles and techniques into that talk now." She said quietly. "When we talk of ranged combat, we talk of snipers, pistoleers and grenadiers."

"Kitchen is this way." Jubilee lead her down the hall towards the kitchen. "Go on."

"A sniper is capable of moving covertly and swiftly and firing with high precision at his target. When he attacks he comes out of nowhere and blitzes the enemy with overwhelming force. A Pistoleer fights more close in, he takes cover when fired upon and usually is armored lightly with a kevlar vest and riot gear or similar supernaturally based defensive mechanisms. SWAT falls into the Pistoleer category because their job is to bust things open and take people out.

"The final category is Grenadier. A grenadier stands at the back and throws grenades or grenade like attacks. The other fighters need to distract anyone that could take out the Grenadiers and make an opening for them to attack at just the right time. Sound like the tactics of any mutant you know?"

"Pistoleer sounds like me and Cyclops, but Grenadier sounds more like Gambit."

"Exactly, you get in close to a grenadier or pin down a pistoleer in a position where he or she can't fire and they're useless to you. My idea was that since Nightcrawler can teleport, maybe the one in your universe can help out on defense and cover the weaknesses of ranged teammembers." Gwen explained. "The other X-men, Kitty can faze through things and she can pass that effect on if she touches someone? See why I'd be hoping she'd have an alternate?"

"I guess. Maybe you can take me to the other universe to hang out for a bit." Suggested Jubilee. "I'd love a version of the institute where everyone else is my age. I'm kind of... outnumbered here by the adults."

"I hope I'll get the chance at some point." Gwen said with a chuckle. "You and Kitty are about 10 years apart in time but I think you two might get along well."

"What do you mean?"

"Its the twenty first century over there." Giggled Gwen. "C'mon Jubilee, ever seen a show called Star Trek?"

She blushed furiously. "My mom has a crush on Riker."

Gwen burst out laughing. For some reason, some of the shows and actors and singers from one world seemed to persist into another. The release dates tended to change based on world. For example, Lady Gaga came out three years earlier in the Bleach universe than in Gwen's home one.

As they approached the kitchen the smell of fresh bread and coffee grew stronger. She could hear a german accent lilting over the sounds of baking.

"_Come in, Sir, for you are weary_

_And the night is cold out there._

_Though our lives are vey humble_

_What we have, we have to share._"

Gwen chuckled as she took up the verse.

"_There is wine here to revive you._

_There is bread to make you strong._

_There's a bed to rest 'til morning._

_Rest from pain, and rest from wrong._" Gwen lilted in a deep, silvered alto. (1)

Nightcrawler jumped, startled. Gwen smiled, straightening out her Shihakusho. "Do I smell some breakfast."

"yes Fraulein, some of the others are sleeping in, I got in early and wanted to surprise them."

"need a hand?"

"Nein, I am fine. You know that song?"

"used Les mis to teach a group of kids to sing, one of those was Masamune back when she just joined my group."

"Ah yes, the stubborn Japanese girl. She was here earlier." Nightcrawler sighed. "I have been hearing strange talk since I came in, something about hollows? Vat are hollows?"

"Soul eating monsters, they're nasty enough I can make a good living out of hunting them." Gwen chuckled. "one of the ones higher up on my bosses' most wanted list tried to bust up Jean and Jubilee. I couldn't let that happen, but my powers are strong enough to strangle a human at close range. All I could do was take the hit."

"Sometimes the most painful sacrifices are the most blessed." Nightcrawler said quietly. "So how strong exactly are you?"

"Well lets see... I once taught the Juggernaut how to fly, with my biceps!" Gwen snickered. "Picked him up and flung him fifty feet!" Gwen sighed blissfully as if recalling a fond childhood memory. "I would have just stuck to the formula of ripping his helmet off and wasting him, but he called Seiryuu-sama an overgrown lizard!"

"Seiryuu-sama?"

"My heart plays host to an ancient dragon spirit that can boost the strength of mutants with water or ice type powers. I'm pretty strong without him but I have to humor him, including teach that overgrown tin can a lesson not to insult a dragon." She said with a smirk.

Nightcrawler was looking slightly shocked and confused. "I do not understand, go back to the place where you said these creatures you are hunting consume souls. I am a Monk ordained by the vatican, yet I am unaware of such things and so are they."

"Tell me Nightcrawler, do you believe the souls of the dead automatically disappear to heaven?"

"I do not know, I have not contemplated such things." He began checking the bread. "Some of the monks in my order consider angels important intermediaries to heaven for the dead, not just between the living and heaven."

"I can answer that, they do not. There are many guardians that protect the souls of men as they move through the cycle, Angels are one, we're another. Priests are only their earthly protectors." Gwen poured herself some coffee. "I am a shinigami, loosely translated into english as a "Soul Reaper" or "Grim Reaper." My job is to make sure all souls go where they're supposed to after they die."

"Such a grim job frauline, Jubilee is she joking with us?"

"So far I don't think she is. Not after the other day."

"But what happens when someone doesn't get to a soul in time is that they rot and become a hollow." A familiar red haired figure stood in the doorway.

"Renji!" Gwen exclaimed.

"Hubba hubba arroooooo!" Jubilee stared at Renji with a huge blush on her face. "Hey are all male Grim reapers as hot as you?"

Renji chuckled. "Been watching the place all night, the Professor let me in."

"Nightcrawler, when the bread is done Renji will need some and some sandwiches to take with him. He's been assigned a patrol in the area and will be returning every so often for room and board." The Professor came up behind Renji, who moved quickly out of the way of his chair, and went to his usual spot at the head of the breakfast table. Nightcrawler hurried to serve him.

"What can I say, being a lieutenant is a full time job." Renji grinned hugely.

"Any word from Unohana?" Gwen asked worriedly.

"On Magneto? He's stable and she's keeping him sedated so he doesn't get ahead of himself and /fudge/ her healing job by doing something stubborn and stupid. Unohana's got a lot of experience treating people with superpowers." Renji poured himself some coffee.

"What about your mission?" Gwen could sense Wolverine approaching the doorway, just entering earshot.

"Rukia and Ichigo managed to contact Alpha Flight and Spiderman and they're setting up training sessions for them now. Spidey is going to Urahara's place for a week or two in the evenings to train. As for Alpha flight, they've given Rukia a job as a trainer."

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, VINDICATOR, HIRE A TRAINER? TELL ME ANOTHER ONE BUB!" Wolverine laughed. "I knew he'd grown soft but I had no idea! Who's this Rukia person?"

"My friend from our Rukongai days." Renji replied. "She's got a temper ten times her size, she's smaller than Gwen I mean, you wouldn't expect someone /that/ tiny to hit so hard." His expression swelled with pride.

"SAY WHAT? VINDICATOR'S TAKING TRAINING LESSONS FROM A CUTSIE LITTLE GIRL? OH GOD CHARLES WHERE'S THE NEAREST PHONE I'VE GOTTA RUB THIS IN HIS FACE." Wolverine was laughing it up.

Renji grabbed him by the collar. "Insult Rukia again and I'll be replacing Xavier's kitchen table." He shoved Wolverine into the wall. "She's my best friend and she's saved my neck more times than I can count, and you're really, really lucky she's better at me than Kido, cause she'd have you lying on your face with your ass in the air. She'd be taking pictures, putting a hitler mustache on your face, and then sending them back to Vindicator as a cruel practical joke."

Wolverine threw Renji over the table, and Gwen calmly flash stepped her coffee out of their way, dragging Jubilee to the side behind her. Wolverine followed it up by leaping clear over the table and punching Renji in the face.

Gwen used flashstep to move the Professor's chair out of the way of the /next/ blow, ducked as Renji drew Zabimaru and leapt over the table again before saving the rack of cooling bread from being crashed into.

"bakudo sixty one, rikukikojo!" Gwen said coldly.

Renji and Wolverine fell over with six brightly colored yellow bars of energy sticking out of their bodies. Wolverine snarled at her. "i will not have you ruining Nightcrawler's hard work." She knocked their heads together, /hard./ Wolverine's head was swimming, so was Renji's. "you have two choices, take it to the Danger room or take it outside like a man instead of a couple of sniveling little children in the rukongai!"

"yes ma'am." Renji said meekly.

"And Renji, do I need to report your thin skin to Captain Kuchiki?"

"no Gwen you don't." Renji's sail deflated a little.

"Good." Gwen released the bakudo and made them both get up.

"Woah girly, where'd you learn to knock heads like that?" Wolverine demanded. "My eyes are still spinning around in circles."

"Soifon and Yoruichi are remarkably effective Hakudo teachers, the only real reason why they had a hard time with Morrigan is because she has poor physical strength." Gwen yawned. "Besides, where I'm from they've got fighters who can slice a building down with a single swing. You ain't no Kenpachi from Zaraki Wolfie." Gwen got a daredevil grin on her face that made Jubilee wince. "C'mon Wolfie, just one punch, try it and see how strong I am."

Wolverine sighed. "Ya all heard her tell me to do it right?" Jubilee covered her eyes and nodded. Nightcrawler looked up from his task and nodded as well, Professor Xavier was watching the tableau, ready to step in if things got out of hand.

_C'mon._ Wolverine thought. _She may not be human but she's just a kid, how strong can she be?_ He drew back his fist and went for his best punch.

Gwen caught Wolverine's fist casually and squeezed. "HOLY!" Wolverine yelled. Gwen was squeezing hard enough to bruise his skin against his own skeleton.

_flashback_

_Gwen stood guard over the Other Wolverine while his body regenerated, disgusted with herself. How could she have let him take on Zephly's fraccion alone? Sure he's nearly indestructable but... she could see Adamantium glinting through his wounds. Cheiz had bitten him deep, damned dingo. _

"_I don't want to ever see adamantium glinting out of your wounds AGAIN Logan, heal yourself, and then GET UP." She said crossly. _

"_Nice of you to give me that pep talk /girly./ Am I ugly to you or something?" _

"_naw, seeing a proud warrior laid low makes me wish I were lying there instead of you." She glared at him. "That /feeling/ of wanting to take your place is what's ugly. I told you not to take on Zephly's fraccion for another few weeks. And you did it anyway, are you happy to have had your mauling?" She rolled her eyes. _

_End flashback_

Wolverine lay there on the ground, pinned by Gwen where she'd squeezed his fist till the adamantium stopped her grip and then flipped him Judo style.

Gwen looked down at him impassively. "I can do worse. I've learned a thing or two about controlling my strength." she eyed Jubilee out of the corner of her vision. The girl was staring at her jaw agape.

"What else can you do?" Nightcrawler asked curiously. He was keeping a careful eye on the food and the other on them.

"Complete control over water, the use of her zanpakuto, and she can talk to computers and even hack them with her mind. Betcha she could have quite a conversation with the Danger room if she wanted to." Renji yawned. "Lets see, flash step, kido, swordsmanship training. We shinigami get quite a bit of teaching. Where we're from powered humans get their strength from their souls, not their genes. And they have both common attacks that depend on your personality to be able to use and unique ones that only they can use. But once a mutant has learned to control their powers its a lot harder to add spiritual abilities to the mix because by then control has become reflexative. Jacks the difficulty level of controlling it all up pretty high. Unfortunately a colleague of mine, Morrigan, who's a master at spirit manipulation, is busy setting up a defensive barrier to keep hollows out of the Morlock tunnels. It may take awhile for her to finish."

"And after that?"

"About two weeks of giving Callisto a crash course in hollow killing. Thats assuming she's successful." Gwen sighed. "And that Callisto will listen to her."

"Hey, she's having more success than I did trying to raise Captain America." Renji sighed depressedly. "From what I hear he was pretty awesome."

"Cap ain't comin out of there till they figure out how to fix what's wrong with him." Wolverine snapped. "You mess with Cap buddy, and I'll bust you a new one."

"Actually I had the twelfth raise a defensive perimeter around the building the cryochamber was in, even sleeping his reiatsu might attract hollows. With that perimeter around the place they can't sense that he's in there." Renji said dully as he stared into his coffee. "I started thinking of that song you performed at the music festival Gwen, empty chairs at empty tables."

"Pssshhh, I didn't want to play Marius, I wanted to be Valjean." Gwen said with that same dull tone. "He appealed to me more than a bleeding heart like Marius. But appearantly Rukia thought I fit him better."

"You have such a beautiful singing voice Gwen." Jubilee said shyly.

"yeah, and you better dust yours off Jubilee. I use music in the training of anyone that can carry a tune." Gwen was drinking her coffee.

"WHAT?"

"Yeah, and if you can't I make you either learn to dance or do percussion. When it comes to spirit control teamwork is one of the harder feats to manage. If you gave Morrigan enough time, she could connect all your spirit energies together so you could amplify each other. But without her help you'll need music and a helluva lot of practice to do it." Gwen grunted. "i don't fancy calling in Urahara to give me a hand in getting you lot to synch up."

Jubilee was blushing furiously. "I never really..."

"Get used to it, music helps Gwen control and amplify her reiatsu and synch up with other fighters. She uses it for /aaaallll/ her teamwork exercises that she runs." Renji chuckled. "When she needs an extra power boost she can amp her powers by focusing on her emotional reaction to music."

"Fascinating, usually emotions cause powers to rage out of control."

"Music is a very mathematical medium. It is at once emotional and logical." Gwen replied. "Mind you, using music to amp doesn't work for everybody. It doesn't require more than one or two people to be actually singing at once. Nightcrawler's already got a pretty good voice on him."

Professor Xavier hesitated a moment. "Seiryuu showed me your memory of the battle earlier. I could hear Japanese music in the background."

Gwen laughed. "one final burst of energy before Wonderweiss took me down in flames. I didn't want even a spark of cero blast getting past me."

"Professor everyone's up, I want to get on that training in a hurry." Cyclops came in, dressed casual for hard work. The others started filing into the kitchen to eat too, offering greetings to Nightcrawler and thanks for the food.

"Sit down and eat first. Its all gonna be verbal with funky visual aids the first few hours while I explain everything." Gwen said casually.

"Wow, I thought Logan rocked the brooding intensity sugar but you take the cake." Rogue made straight for the coffee pot.

"You heard last night? Ulquiorra attacked Magneto and put him in the ICU. If he does the same here in the next three days you'd better pray the captains can get here in time cause I'm /barely/ strong enough to hold him off. If they don't or if I can't drive him off, you may end up attending the Shinigami academy in the soul society instead of Xavier's school for the gifted." Gwen growled a deep, feral dragon growl.

"He that serious?" Rogue asked worriedly.

"He'd be able to overload you with his power and kill you. Thats assuming you try to absorb him, which reminds me Rogue, if you tried to absorb my powers you'd get into a lot of trouble. So please do not try." Gwen was nearly through with her coffee. "I'll need a big screen attached to a computer with a wireless adapter or a usb cable."

"I shall have it for you when I've eaten." Beast yawned. Gwen chuckled, he had coffee, toast with jam, and a copy of "The Riverside Shakespere" open on a stand in front of his plate.

Gwen nodded and finished her plate, going for a new cup of coffee. She sighed, plugging her ipod into her arm and leaning back to listen. "Say Gwen..." Jubilee began. "you said you participated in a music festival right?"

"Hai... a month of concerts, exhausting but I didn't have to be in all of them." Gwen smiled, tapping her fork a bit in time to the beat in her head. "So I just picked the ones I liked."

"What's it like, performing on a big stage like that." Jubilee was hanging onto Gwen's every word. Gwen chuckled, clearly visions of stardom were dancing in Jubilee's head.

"Its a thrill unlike any other. I don't perform because I want attention Jubilee. I perform because I want to create something special that will make people happy. The arts are the freest form of self expression in existence, and that is how I claim my freedom, not by acting out but by creating something that expresses how I feel."

"I can express in art, emotions I cannot describe in words." Masamune agreed. "Try drawing how you feel next time you're angry at someone Jubilee. Its very effective stress release."

"For me combat is as much art as it is fighting. I can make a battle look like anything I want it to, and /thats/ no superpower." Gwen grinned. She looked up as Alex came in with Gambit. "Hey mon cherie, did you know that I can use the feathers of Alex's phoenixes as grenades? They came out twice as strong using them!"

"Phoenix feathers contain a lot of fire element energy." Alex replied, serving herself and turning one of them in her fingers. The feather began to glow brilliant red. Bennu and Anasazi floated over to Jean, begging her for attention. The telepath chuckled, giving them each a stroke before setting them down on the counter behind her. The two of them twittered and nuzzled each other. "Its easy for someone with an explosive personality to utilize."

"Hmmm..." Gwen was pecking through the news feeds on her left arm's interface. One of the plus sides to having an entirely cybernetic left arm. "oh dear, why didn't someone from Yggdrasil warn me? I could use that..."

"hmmm?" Storm looked up from her own food.

"A rare energy alignment will be coming through in the next week or so... the almanac feed I get from their observatory says its a prime night for meditation. I'll have to go play with Saeyamaru, he promised to be good and so far he has, but I can tell he's eager."

"Saeyamaru?" Asked Rogue blankly.

"My zanpakuto. Shinigami minds are special. We have a special space inside of ours called our inner world. Inside of it rests a spirit born from our souls." Renji explained. "Zanpakuto are swords made from a piece of our souls, and the character of that spirit is born from our minds. For example, Gwen's mom was sick for most of her childhood, and with no dad around she had to take care of her mom. So Gwen's zanpakuto spirit is the childish pranking brat she never got to be."

Gwen chuckled. "You forgot he wears chain mail and carries a wooden sword! Whereas Renji has a hot tempered and feral personality, so his zanpakuto Zabimaru's spirit takes the form of a Japanese Chimera, a Nue."

"The Japanese have some pretty freaky creepy crawlies in their ghost stories." Wolverine yawned. "Been there. The Nue is only called a "Japanese Chimera" because thats the closest western mythological beast. Its really nothing like the Greek Chimera. And its said to occasionally haunt the Emperor."

"then can you tell me what Sempai means?" Jubilee asked. "Masamune called Gwen sempai. And I've been hearing the word fukutaichou in their conversations too."

Wolverine grinned. "Lemme give you a little lesson about the Japanese and manners. Cause when you came out to Japan to get me that one time, you seriously offended some of the villagers. The Japanese address each other by their last name first, if you call them by their first name it means you're friendly, and if you aren't and you talk like that, its considered rude. Someone might even think you're being manipulative."

"Yes, if you call Hitsugaya-taichou by his first name he'll get mad, for example." Gwen chuckled. "in addition the Japanese put suffixes at the end of a person's name to tell you what their relationship to a person is. -san is the most basic. For example, I don't know Wolverine well, so I call him Logan-san. Its the same as using Mister or Missus in english."

"-Kun is the suffix for a man you know very well. It doesn't imply anything further than that, to imply something even further, I'd have to hear your tone of voice. For example, Gwen and I are good friends, so Gwen can call me "Renji-kun" or "Abarai-kun." The second is more polite and the first implies a greater deal of friendship."

"-chan is the familiar address for a girl. For example its okay to use -chan when referring to Jean, Storm or Rogue, though it can also be used to tease someone. When its not used on a girl, it implies you're calling 'em small." Wolverine added. "... then there's -Sama which means someone who has direct authority over you. -Dono implies someone you have great respect for. -sensei means teacher. -sempai, the one you asked about means "senior" when literally translated, but it can also mean "Mentor" or someone who used to mentor you at an earlier time."

"I occasionally take Masamune on training exercises as a favor to her clan." Gwen added. "But we met under some interesting circumstances, so I guess she looks up to me. -kohai means the opposite. For example, in Japan it would be socially appropriate to call you "Jubirii-kohai" because you're younger than I am. Especially if I've been asked to teach you something in specific."

"What's with the lack of the L's? By the way?"

"The Japanese have no letter L, no letter C, and no letter X. They also won't put two consonents together unless one of them is a Y." Beast added. "They also have three different alphabets and read in the opposite direction. I noticed you have manga in your personal collection Jubilee, ever notice how sometimes the picture will get cut off in a panel?"

"Yeah!" Jubilee exclaimed. "Thats always a bummer but I don't quite understand why it happens."

"Its because the panel's been flipped backwards so you can read it to fit english grammer. The verb is always at the end of a sentence in Japanese too." Gwen yawned. "its an interesting language, and difficult to learn to read. I was born in America, and I'm lucky my father taught me spoken Japanese as a small child." She put her coffee down. "Anyway, there are four titles in the soul society that every visitor to our culture should know. "-taichou" means captain. Some of the captains can get kinda tetchy if you don't use it. Hitsugaya-taichou in particular. He's physically stuck in the body of a child younger than you are Jubilee, despite being over a century old /and/ a captain. He takes it a bit personally. So if he comes to check on us be polite." Gwen added. "-fukutaichou means lieutenant, thats mine and Renji's title. I don't have a problem with you dropping that in conversation, do you renji?"

"nawwww... so don't worry about titles with the two of us." Renji agreed.

"Sotaichou refers to just one person, the commander general, and you'd better pray you never see him outside of soul society, because usually that means something so dangerous has happened that it cannot be handled by anything less but the greatest brute force. If he appears run as fast as you can /away/ from the battle or his zanpakuto will more than likely turn you into ashes. He's the most powerful spiritual based fire user I've ever heard of." Gwen shivered slightly. "I've only seen him release his zanpakuto once. With just his lowest released form, Yamamoto Shigekune Genryuusai paralyzed three traitors two of whom are at least as strong as I am and one of them, Aizen, far stronger, for a six hour period of combat." Gwen shivered.

"w... wow... how strong is this guy?"

"you don't wanna know." Gwen chuckled.

"... o... okay..." Jubilee's jaw looked ready to fall from her face.

"The final term of address is -sanzaki. It means third seat. In every division there is a captain and lieutenant and seats from numbers three to twenty or so. Smaller divisions cut the number to ten unless they have high skill level fighters in their numbers. The "san" in sanzaki means "three" and is the same as the second mate of a ship. "zaki" refers to their seated title. Even if you don't know the number, you can guess by the "zaki" part of the suffix that you're in the presence of a seated officer."

"Are the shinigami that focused on respect?" Professor Xavier asked worriedly.

"Only some of them. I mean you guys have probably cursed your lot in life more than once, you'd be irritable too if you were over a hundred years old but stuck with having the body of a twelve or thirteen year old child like Hitsugaya-taichou does and /nobody/ treated you with the proper respect for your station. And no offense to his lieutenant but Rangiku-chan doesn't seem to realize when her teasing undermines his authority. Soifon-taichou, I've only seen her melt for one person, Yoruichi-sama. Mayuri Kurotsuchi from twelfth is on the sadistic side. He's the guy we pick to probe the intrusive scientific questions nobody wants to ask or try to answer. He only makes people use titles to stoke his ego. The others well, get to know them a bit first before you judge."

"what about my taichou?" Renji asked.

"Not sure." Gwen sighed. "Kuchiki-taichou acts the way he does out of grief. He's a quiet person also. I wouldn't count him out in the friends department. He just doesn't bring his personal life to the table."

"I suppose, seeing how tragic things with..." Alex began.

"hush... from what I've heard Hisana is a Kuchiki family guardian now." Masamune told Alex firmly. "have pride in her purpose rather than anguish in her death. To be a family shade is one of the greatest honors that can be bestowed upon the deceased."

"Your morning banter is quite interesting."

"You should see my morning brawl." Masamune chuckled. "My cousin Mika doesn't like my taste of breakfast. Tofu egg scramble apparently is too disgusting for her to stand even looking at!"

"eeeewww, eggs and tofu?"

"Done right, its surprisingly good." Wolverine grumbled. "Extra protien girly, I get the feeling you're going to need it. Hey Waverunner, how'd you train the other versions of us."

"other versions?" Nightcrawler asked.

"It is a long story Nightcrawler. And I would really rather only have to tell it once." Gwen sighed.

"Then I will, Waverunner claims to have worked in an alternate universe where there are also X-men, alternate versions of ourselves." Beast explained.

"And I'm only gonna explain it once in full." Gwen grunted.

"Fascinating, vat was the other me like?" Nightcrawler asked curiously.

"A painfully shy teenager with image issues." Gwen chuckled.

Nightcrawler rolled his eyes. "sounds like my teenage years."

"yeah, and the timeline of stuff is different." Gwen finished off her coffee. "Oye, Beast-san, not to be a nag but..."

"...Surely you need time to prepare your presentation." Beast had finished eating but his coffee wasn't done.

"Been working on it while you've been sippin on your coffee." Masamune chuckled. "Beast-san, Waverunner-sempai possesses the ability to control computers with her mind. Her water power is only seiryuu's, borrowed for the duration of her life as a mortal. Think of him as a power symbiont, he needs someone else to share a body with, and his own powers override the host's. But sometimes a particularly strong bent shows through. Gwen's father was a member of the other world's X-men, though he had to hide that he didn't really have the X-gene until recently, the other Xavier let him come and go from the manor as a shinigami after his death."

"My father has the ability to hack computers and manipulate data with his mind. Or he did until he turned into a shinigami. A particularly rare kind. Father's power was so strong he accidentally created an entity that turned out to become his best friend at the tender age of seven years old." Gwen grinned. "I can't manipulate data like he can, but I'm very very able to program computers while eating and writing a word document is exceptionally easy to do when all you need to do is think what you want to write."

Renji got up and put his dishes away. "I got patrols to do. If we can't get help from the avengers we're gonna have to assign someone the patrol /they/ would have gotten." He growled. "i'm going to work outwards from the manor and destroy as many hollows as I can in the area. I will not give Aizen easy pawns."

"I must hone my skills, I wish it weren't pouring down rain." Saya stood up to go.

"Hone your skills huh, wish I didn't have to sit through Gwen's /class/." Wolverine glared at her.

"Wolverine, if you think you can do better I'll put you in the ring with a danger room sim of Grand Fisher and see how you fare. The other you melted down when he fought him."

"he ain't me..." Wolverine smirked.

"She didn't mean it Wolverine." Alex sighed as she stood, putting her dishes in the dish washer. "Grand Fisher was, for awhile, the mother of all psychological opponents."

"Don't spoil it. Besides, Shrieker might be a bit more appropriate." Gwen sighed.

"Ichigo may end up laughing if he sees us fighting all his and his team's early opponents." Saya grinned.

"My /concern/ is this group of X-men's level of training. Being able to seperate spirit power from mutant power will be important to preventing accidents during training. I will need to go as heavily into Phasmological theory as I will into practical. To start with, the difference between sentience and the soul."

Gwen hurried down the hall after Beast, quite eager to get started, shihakusho flowing with the speed of her passage.

"The difference between sentience and the soul? But I thought they were the same thing." Jubilee asked as they settled down into the war room.

"Not at all." Gwen began hooking herself into the computer via USB cables she was pulling out of her arm. "Tell me Jubilee, one of your enemies qualifies as being sentient but not having a soul, are you sure you don't know which one?"

"Gambit not sure he quite understand..." Gambit mused. "We've seen something thats sentient with no soul?"

Gwen was certain she could hear the gears turning. "Let Jubilee figure it out..."

Jubilee's face brightened when she realized she knew the answer. "I know! I got it! The sentinals leader Mastermold!"

"Thats right! There are a few biological entities that are sentient with no soul also. And here is exactly how I can tell, besides him being a robot, that Mastermold is a sentient being with no soul. Here..."

The screen began to show up different images from past X-men missions involving the sentinals. "Checklist part one, decision making ability is necessary for sentience. Even language can be considered to be the result of decision making. Mastermold clearly makes decisions for all of the sentinals, therefore, he fits checklist one." The image of Mastermold taking control of them came up.

"Checklist part two, a being that is sentient but without a soul needs to experience emotion. When he kidnapped his creators, Mastermold could have been making a tactical decision. But one could interpret his attempt to kidnap professor xavier in the same breath as a desire for revenge and a sense of irony as well as tactical. Thats an emotion.

"Checklist part three, impaired awareness and ability to predict the actions of beings who have souls. A soul helps a person to understand emotions and the behavior of other beings with souls. Mastermold couldn't understand the class lines drawn between Mutants and Humans by prejudice. To him they were all the same thing, and thats what caused him to break from his creators programming, an error paradox created by not being able to understand classlines, it is like trying to explain Indian Castes to a foul tempered American five year old and then telling him to destroy all the untouchables. This same inability to understand human behavior produces a predictive deficit when reading human behavior. Look, see? I found this file from the same battle in which he demonstrated a desire for revenge. He couldn't predict Morph's attack on him. Heck, he kept predicting he'd win against all of you. He didn't did he? Mastermold went by his numbers, not the fact that humans can sometimes, once in awhile, do the thing they're statistically least likely to do."

"The final part of the checklist requires the being being evaluated to demonstrate a command of their reiatsu or the potential to learn how to summon it. At no point has any sentinal demonstrated more than super advanced technology. This final most important indicator indicates they have no soul. Most Ais don't, but it is more important to be able to discern when a biological opponent is naturally deficit in this area, to be able to trace and sense souls when you may not necessarily see a need to. Because /sometimes/ this extra sense, the ability to detect souls and soul energy, can give a vital clue to your enemy's abilities that can't be perceived with any other sense /including/ psychic class mutant abilities."

"To be able to sense the spiritual presences of others is the most important first step in any training. Though deduction and observation can get you far if you have a keen mind, there is no substitute. However... the other Professor and Jean Grey especially had trouble seperating psychic senses and spiritual ones."

The professor looked at her seriously. "I saw a bit of the other group in your mind. My alternate was being tutored."

"Yes by Unohana, in reiatsu healing something I can't teach you." Gwen replied. "The idea is to feed spiritual energy into the body, which triggers its natural regenerative processes at rapid speed. Not every member of the other X-men was able to hold their own against the hollows, ranged fighters like Cyclops found their accuracy rate plummeting at range and sustaining major injury close in. I had to teach more supportive techniques and team techniques than offensive ones." Gwen had gathered herself into a lotus position and she shifted her voice to the computer. "It is why I begin with an understanding of seperating sentience and soul. It will lead into trying to seperate one sense from another. Spirit sensing ability is nearly universal and depends more on personality than brute strength or high level of soul energy or genes or any other factor."

she grinned. "So... part two... the basic mechanics of spirit energy. Mind, body and spirit each create energy. They can create a force called chakra when combined. Seperately however, one's spirit energy, referred to as Reiryoku is plenty useful."

"So wait a minute... which of these do my powers work on?" Rogue asked. "I mean if a person's body has three different kinds of energy..."

"More than likely all three. Every technique that is generated from within a person comes from mixing these three energies in different proportions. To be able to "absorb" a person's powers would require duplicating the exact proportions of these different energies. Even genetic based abilities such as mutations eventually have to draw on these forces." Gwen was thinking of her friends the Ninjas of Konohagakura and Sunagakure, just for a moment.

Rogue seemed to understand that, and Gwen continued. "This energy circulates through pathways in the body much like blood and lymph does. My friend Jazra is a specialist in manipulating that circulation and she could probably tell you much more than I. In addition, eight energy centers located along the spine help to regulate how fast that energy flows. They're like floodgates. If they're unstopped it lets massive amounts of energy through, but if you unstop the last one, you better finish your fight and close it again quickly, or you won't be walking away. I know only two people who can break that last gate open and live to tell about it."

"It sounds like you've made a lot of friends."

"yes, and their skills are as diverse and as brilliant as a rainbow." Gwen smiled serenely. "I've been traveling for years, even after I found a nice place to settle. I'm constantly being surprised and pleased at what I find while wandering. Anyway, besides the basic way in which spirit energies flow in the body there's a complex classification system in place. Every soul has an element, a polarity, a manner of power growth, ecetera. My soul is a Matsuri type, which means that emotional stimuli make me stronger. Elgaic souls get stronger through contemplation and mental fitness and the word comes from the English word "Elegy." Apocalypta type souls gain strength in a crisis, but are pretty weak otherwise. There are other minor types of souls, those are just the three most common."

"my soul is an elgaic type, it seems counterintuitive with my temper, but look at the nature of my powers neh?" Saya asked with a chuckle. "Rukia-chan and Byakuya-sama are Elgaic types too!" Saya beamed enormously.

"Point is, its a bit convoluted and charts every aspect of a soul's growth." Alex yawned. "Some souls have a dual element, some have /no/ element. I'd lay money on Rogue-san having one of those. Otherwise she wouldn't be able to use so many different powers with about an even amount of strength. If she had an element one type of borrowed power would be stronger than the others and not work. Everyone else I can only hazard a guess based on field performance. Making things esplode for example usually means a fire type soul. Though I dunno... Gambit kinda strikes me as a void kinda guy but that could just be his personality... hmmmm..."

"hai hai! My money's on Logan-san being a wind type! But we shall see!" Saya chirped up. "Certain personality traits and powers tend to occur more often with one element soul or another."

"you can also hazard a guess based on what techniques a person is either immune or compatible with. Grey-san might be a fire type too, or something compatible with fire, or else Phoenix-sama wouldn't have been able to use her body." Gwen added.

"you haven't even met the thing." Cyclops muttered.

"Forgive me, the Japanese refer to every god like guardian as -sama. In our culture the phoenix would have been considered a Kami, though more than likely a minor one."

"If the Phoenix was minor, I'd hate to see what other 'Kami' are like." Beast shuddered.

"Hey now, I happen to have one of those Kami locked up in my body." Gwen admonished. "Show a little respect, Seiryuu and I have been friends and partners for TEN YEARS."

**I'm not as easily blinded by pleasures of the flesh as Phoenix-san, I have had many bodies over the course of ten thousand years. I have developed discretion. Phoenix-san was too young to have learned the same. It is unfortunate that such a talented and pretty host had to suffer for her inexperience.** Seiryuu purred. **But she is right, the Gods have reserved for themselves special zones of the Astral Plane. Places no Telepath can break into without a guide. Places so realistic, the mind thinks it really is on earth, and must be anchored to return.**

"You're getting off topic Seiryuu."

**Cut me some slack, normally you're the only one that can hear me. I could make myself heard by the professor across the school! **

"He's just happy to have someone to talk to I suppose." Gwen sighed. "Anyway, lets see where was I... well, since Seiryuu mentioned the Kami I might as well go on from spirit power classes to some of the races and alternate versions of humanity I've met."

She chuckled. "We've noticed that souls have parts, and one of these parts is very special. A soul core." Gwen smiled, changing the slide to show two small pale blue orbs, one with a silver light inside and one with a gold one. Some souls have an extra component, a soul core. These cores afford an extra level of spiritual ability. The gold one is a gatekeeper, the silver a damaged core which creates a valkire."

Gwen carefully removed her key pendant from her neck and made it grow into a full sized blade, part mace, part axe, part sword. It was made from solid sapphire. "This is my keyblade, the weapon of a gatekeeper. Unlike mutant powers that appear as a teenager, Gatekeeper and Valkire abilities have to be stimulated. To be asked to evaluate and tap someone is an honor. We just don't let /anyone/ in as a keeper. Consultant, thats another story."

"You are also one of these Gatekeepers."

"haaaaiii." Gwen said cheerfully. "Most gatekeepers only have to answer to our leader and her lieutenants the Snowflake Department heads. But a few of us who are stronger answer to the classical gods from around the world. In my case Seiryuu. Believe it or not that Astral plane isn't as empty as you telepaths think it is. The Gods inhabit it and they each get the right to one gatekeeper regardless of species, spiritual or genetic identity to be their emissary. Sometimes they'll even appear to an ordinary mortal if they've formed an attachment to them. Each of us has a powerful spiritual guardian that protects us and suits our personality."

"I have mine, and I am very happy to have been offered some proof of his existance." Nightcrawler said quietly. The look on his face was so peaceful.

"I should introduce you to Benson, she's got the plum job of being emissary for the angel Gabriel."

"REALLY? A real angel! Truely remarkable!"

Wolverine looked like he was getting annoyed. "I thought priests didn't need proof of God's existance."

"We do not, but finding such proof is life affirming herr Logan." Nightcrawler smiled. "I would like to meet zis friend of yours."

"I'll figure out how to fit it in to all the training we'll have to do." Gwen chuckled.

"Nightcrawler it may have to wait until after Aizen's forces have swept through the area and are gone." Saya warned him.

"i am a patient man Saya."

"Now... we shinigami are one of the races that have thrown our lot in with the Gatekeepers as allies. We're hollow killing specialists, we're great at what we do but we don't have that great a history. Like the students here, we're learning how to deal with the wider world. Unfortunately, as I said, part of what's causing us to break our silence is... well..."

"That bastard traitor Aizen overran the seireitei's ability to contain his forces. He started a sherman's march style campaign across the multiverse and we haven't been able to stop him. Best we could do is protect the people where he attacks and do our best to get them out of the way." Saya spoke up.

"but our role is larger than that, the job of the shinigami is to strike a balance between life and death. The name means grim reaper or death god. But its a more complex job than it seems. If that balance stops running on a particular world or is damaged, we pretty much have to go above and beyond to put it right. And when that sort of thing happens, the lives of mortals don't matter, only their souls. We exist for the sole purpose of moving souls though the cycle. Hollows are rotten souls that have consumed others because that rot causes them pain. Once killed those souls the hollows ate are returned to the cycle. When you fight a hollow, you are fighting not only for your own soul, but for the freedom of everyone that they /ate/ to pass on to the next stage in the cycle. Its kinda cool actually."

"i thought it might be something like this..." Professor Xavier sighed. "When Seiryuu told me hollows eat souls, I wondered whether they were digested and destroyed or if they were retained inside the hollow's mind."

"Sort of, a few really strong hollows can catch flashes of the memories of the people they ate. But they have to fight those memories to keep their sanity. If they lose it, they deevolve and lose all reason. Professor, if you're anything like the other you, you know the value of reason. Please do not try to do that to them. Although being a hollow is agony, being an insane hollow is far more painful. The goal should be to kill the enemy hollow swiftly and cleanly. A low level hollow should be dealt with in a single blow. But the arrancars take longer."

"Anyway, shinigami have four combat disciplines, these are all powers that any shinigami can learn, but some are better at them than others. Kido is demon magic, it requires a lot of energy control for this. My buddy Renji for example can't control his energy too well, and neither can Ichigo. Ichigo learns fast, but he can't sense reiatsu for beans and his control over it sucks. It takes him a lot of practice to be able to control his techniques. Fortunately for fighters like me and Morrigan Kido is a snap! I not only have plenty of spirit energy to fuel it, but spirit control is one of my best features.

"Flashstep or shunpo is the second, but its part of a larger discipline called "Hoho" which basically means "footwork." Flash step is a super speed technique, and the very first shinigami power I got control over. That said, my ability to change directions sucked for awhile. I was doing a lot of sprints I can tell you.

"The third is hakudo or hand to hand combat. I've got plenty of strength on that score, but as you all know strength isn't everything. And I know martial artists who are so delicate the only sign they leave that they hit you is a quarter sized bruise.

"Finally there's zanjutsu, or the art of using the sword. For shinigami swordwork is more than just the physical aspects of the battle, and its where shinigami combat becomes unique." She pulled Saeyamaru up onto the table, the battered cutlass was, in its unreleased form completely unremarkable. "A zanpakuto like mine is a living sword, its the physical embodiment of my shinigami soul. Every zanpakuto has a shikai and a bankai, accessed by getting to know the alter ego contained inside of it, the zanpakuto spirit, and building a relationship with it. Ultimately, whether or not a shinigami's powers progress in strength depends almost entirely upon that blade and building a relationship with it."

"And right now Gwennie and I are pretty chummy!" Saeyamaru's voice rang from the blade.

"Every blade is unique, this is where shinigami powers begin to diverge from each other." Gwen continued her explanation over Saeyamaru's excitement.

"hey Gweeennniiieee, hurry up to the part where we get to combat practice! I want some playtime!" Saeyamaru whined.

"A Shinigami's zanpakuto is thought to be a statement about their personality, Saeyamaru for example says every childish thing I /wish/ I had the freedom to say or do involving whomever we're fighting. Pants the enemy? He's done it. I kid you not."

"And you love it when I dooooooo..."

"Saeyamaru you mind going back into our inner world for a bit so I can finish? Believe me, you'll get plenty of action soon enough..."

* * *

Saeyamaru would have been extremely jealous of what was going on in New York, this was the fourth hollow Morgan, alias Morrigan, had had to kill while trying to put protective anti hollow barriers around the Morelock tunnels.

"Its not strong enough. I need some extra powercells and then I'm gonna have to daisychain them together."

"Daisychain?" Leech leaned over her shoulder to have a look at Morgan's work.

"You ever link car batteries together to make a temporary power generator?"

"Leech hasn't, the grownups have!"

"Thats a daisy chain. You hook a lot of power sources together so that they can help each other."

"Leech get powercells!"

"No Leech, no ordinary power source will do for this. I have to call back to Soul society."

"Halloo!" Ichigo grinned, dropping from a junction in the tunnel above them. Spiderman hung from a web next to him, a couple of grocery bags in hand with fruit in them. He was going to stop by Aunt May and maybe MJ's, see if his aunt could make some of her famous applesauce. But Ichigo had wanted to check on his colleague before the two of them parted ways.

"Hey Ichigo, anybody on the team carrying extra powercells? This barrier isn't strong enough. I need a daisy chain."

"Hey no problem i'll go pick flowers for you." Ichigo said stupidly. Spiderman facepalmed a minute, knowing exactly what Morgan needed.

"IDIOT." Morgan grunted. "of course not, who carries spare parts on a diplomatic training related mission. I really wish Saya was here."

"You need parts? I need dinner. I was gonna go over to a friend's for a special one but I went on a detour to visit you guys instead. I could probably find a few."

"I highly doubt you can get me the parts I need Spiderman. I'm fairly sure I'll need to call either Unohana or Kurotsuchi." She sighed and pushed a few buttons on her shinigami cellphone. "On the starting block for phone tag in three... two... one..."

* * *

I know I had to cut this off but this chappie was just over 17 pages!


	5. Chapter 5

Okay WHY CAN'T MARVEL HAVE A FREAKIN MMO? DC DOES WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY? okay so DC universe isn't too bad, I'm still holding out hope for my avatar to meet the Teen Titans. But... I WANNA GO ON MISSIONS WITH THE X-MEN IN AN MMOOOOOOOOOOOO...

Soooo... the end of this chapter sees the start of a series of errands the bleach and X-men characters have to go on to help raise the defenses of the marvelverse against Aizen. Starting with Gwen, Rogue and Beast. These errands in and of themselves function like the miniquests in an MMORPG, in other words, you're building support before you go after the big wammy.

Before I begin, for Portal 2 based laughs, check out the youtube videos "Googol GlaDOS" and "Googol GlaDOS 2.0" by Hakobyte as well as "The Wheatley Song" "This is Aperture" and "If I were a core" by Harry101UK. This guy is fuuuunnnny, i laughed until it hurt.

* * *

"Sooo... we've covered shinigami, time for a crash course in hollows and hollow evolution." Gwen grinned. "Inside of every human being there lives a hollow and a shinigami. The shinigami is the enlightened, rational side, the hollow is the animal side, the one that thinks in terms of revenge and vendettas. In order to be a whole human, both sides must be more or less intact until death. Borrowing a shinigami's power can get the shinigami a death sentence, and cause the human to be executed or forcibly drafted into the soul society. There are no exceptions to the rule, if you get our power, say goodbye to your life among the living."

"now wait a minute." Rogue protested. "What's so dangerous about..."

"Rogue, temporarily absorbing my power could trigger that inner potential inside of you and /force/ you into becoming something not human at all against your will. You want that?"

"No."

"Good. I don't want that either." Gwen grinned. "now the hollow can occasionally come loose if a human who has taken a shinigami's power further mutates, but its rare. Most of the time, a person can't become a hollow until they die. If they start to turn while still alive, the partial turning alone will make sure they aren't alive for very much longer. The transformation is deadly to a still living body."

"We are all attached to our bodies by a thread, a cable, called the chain of fate. It looks a /lot/ like Jacob Marley's chains. A ghost however, has had that chain severed by their body. I made sure the other X-men knew about this right off, because by shinigami rules, you aren't officially dead unless that chain is broken. A hollow can knock you clean out of your body if its feeling especially vicious, but as long as that chain is still attached you can climb back in."

"But when a soul hasn't crossed over for a long enough period, that chain becomes vulnerable and either rots out over the course of months or years, or it can be torn out. Hollows may often deliberately turn stray souls into other hollows because it gives them a degree of control over the soul thats been transformed. Thats the hole that you see when a hollow shows up."

Jean shuddered. "Does it... hurt them?"

"quite a bit. Hollows eternally seek to regain that which was lost, their heart. Thats why they consume souls. And like many vengeful humans, they seek to /force/ their pain on others. Its a natural impulse for them. Some hollows are more sadistic than others. From what Rukia's told me Shrieker was one particularly gruesome SOB."

"What made him gruesome?" Jubilee asked.

Gwen turned a darkeneed expression on Jubilee. "he was a serial killer sent to the chair when he was alive. As a hollow, he killed a mother and frightened her spiritually aware son so badly that when he killed him the child fled into a cockatiel's body to hide from his attacker."

The girl shivered slightly and gulped.

"Hollows have one weakness, the mask, it covers their pain and represents the animal emotions that have taken them over. The only way to kill one for good is to break the mask. You should aim for killing weaker hollows in a single shot with a blunt or sharp force strike. In the other universe, the alternate Beast and Wolverine seemed to have a particular advantage in these areas. Cyclops-san, you were fine from a distance, but the other you ran into serious trouble in close quarters with one. And that was just with a danger room sim of Acid Wire. He's a small fry. It proved the same thing again and again once I got the other x-men out into the field fighting hollows. Beast and Wolverine repeatedly had all the luck and ranged fighters only had the advantage until the hollow closed. Then accuracy dropped drastically. Wasn't just Cyclops that got blindsided. Spike got it trying to fight one ranged."

"Spike?" queried Gambit.

"The /other/ Storm's Nephew. He's got a very accurate nickname."

Saya sighed. "I'm going to have a look topside guys. I've heard half of this before."

Gwen nodded. "Go, I was just going to start on hollow techniques."

The swordsmith and artist sighed, leaving her spot against the wall to go to the Manor's roof.

"Anyway, where I'm from your species pretty much determines your techniques with only a few unique abilities. Mutants are in the minority in that /all/ of their skills are unique from each other. Even though there may be simularities between some powers, there are still differences enough to make it clear who's just used what. Hollows are no exception to the common power rule. The most notable skills they all have are Cero, Hierro, and Sonido."

"Zero, Iron and Sound!" Beast translated.

"Thats right, Cero is a beam attack, its most basic form looks like a giant version of Cyclops' beams. But there are also color variations and technique variations in the higher levels. One of the most common is the "Cero Double" in which a ranged or beam attack is sucked in and thrown back out again as a cero, and stronger. Weaker arrancars like that one because they can't always get the right beam strength consistently with their own level of power or proficiency. The strongest ceros are Cero Oscuras, which burns /black/ its so hot, and the violet hot "Cero Apocalypsis" and by the way, that technique has a bunch of techniques, but they're all along similar lines. "KT Cero" "Cero Megido.""

"They're all references to the end of the world?" Storm guessed.

"yeah, the KT cero is a favorite nickname for it by its creator, an arrancar named Zephly Ophiucus Ascepilas. He was inspired to create it by Cold War nuke research and research into the KT boundary and other mass extinctions. Zephly is a learned opponent, but his motives, I can't figure out. I can't figure out if he wants to harm the soul society truly or he's only doing it because Aizen told him to. The guy's at least two thousand years old or so he claims. But of course, he also claims he was one of the sacrifices the Athenians put to the Minotaur."

"so you can't verify if its true or not." It was as close to a question as Wolverine would likely come.

"Well, a Minoan mural of him being fed to the minotaur would be very very nice evidence but..." Gwen sighed. "The truth about Zephly's origins rests only in his own mind. Hueco Mundo is pure natural selection. The only thing hollows use as a measure of authority is power. They won't respect you if you're weak. And they certainly won't pause in killing you. Even with their enemies, the higher level hollows seem to have issues involving strength and power driving how they treat others."

"Have they ever deviated from that mindset?" Asked Professor Xavier, clearly he was upset by having to deal with a species that only respected power and lived by a code of dominence and revenge.

"Occasionally. I gained one of their strongest, Grimmjow's respect a long time ago, back when I was still human. I was recovering from some..." Gwen looked down. "... pretty vicious injuries, and he was assigned to be my body guard while everybody prepared for the woman who did it to come back for round two with friends." Gwen did not like to think about who that woman was, what her continued existance represented. She had a mission to complete. She couldn't focus on the more insidious clues lying under the ruins of Aizen's rampage. "I wasn't afraid of Grimmjow, and for some reason he was grateful for that. I don't quite understand why. Ichigo isn't afraid of him either but Grimmjow can't seem to resist trying to splatter his guts all over the pavement. so... techniques again..."

Gwen grinned. "Hierro is also known as "iron skin." Shinigami and powered humans can learn a version called Souryoku. This skill involves hardening the skin with one's spirit energy. If you have high spirit energy, whether you're a hollow or a human, if you have to fight in a stationary position or your response time is slow, its a technique worth looking into. Its also /great/ in a brawl. You wouldn't believe the number of fractures its prevented since Unohana figured out it wasn't a strictly shinigami or hollow ability.

"Sonido which means "sound" in Spanish and "sound ceremony" in Japanese, is a super speed evasion and attack technique that involves instinctive movement at high speed. Once a hollow gains control over Sonido, they can play with it a little. But for the most part its instinctive. It also has something that a fighter with jacked up senses can detect a fraction of a second before it strikes, a shockwave. Its not outside of the realm of possibility that a mutant with super speed or super reflexes may be able to detect it.

"in addition there are two far less offensive techniques. Negacion is used to protect a hollow from harm and secure an evac route. But it can also be employed to confine an area as large as if not larger than the school for extended periods of time. It literally seperates one section of space from all the rest, temporarily creating a seperate dimension. You can see through it, you can speak or signal through it, but telepathy can't pass through very easily. I mean quite literally, you could have the Professor on one side of one desperately trying to reach the team trapped on the other, and it would be like trying to path into another dimension, impossible without multiple telepaths to make the attempt. Teleport abilities similarly treat the area inside the negacion as a seperate dimension."

"I take it these are all approaches the other group of X-men tried."

Gwen nodded. "I couldn't make a fake negacion barrier and still have the psi blocking part of the technique work. So I was unable to create a danger room simulation involving negacion. A lot of what I'm saying is or isn't possible or will or won't work is based on what the /other/ group of X-men and the /other/ faction under Magneto tried to do in defending themselves and couldn't figure out. The final one, and also a technique I couldn't create a danger room sim of is a Garganta. Gargantas allow hollow to cross dimensions, but are unable to cross a Negacion barrier. They use it to get to the mortal realm from hueco mundo."

"Can they open one of these indoors?" Wolverine asked worriedly.

Gwen grinned and closed her eyes. The screen was filled with a danger room sim in the /other/ X-men's danger room. The Cyclops in it was much younger, and the Beast slightly slimmer. The wolverine in it had his mask points tipped at an odd angle and a slightly squarer face. The three of them were combating Acid Wire.

Acid Wire leapt from his garganta and tried to get at the girl they were defending. Cyclops fired and missed. The sim showed two stats, accuracy as the stat "Hit" and the power rating as "Dmg." Every missed beam attack by Cyclops lowered the "hit" stat by about 3 to 5 percent.

"COOL IT!" The other wolverine snarled. "Cyc, you aren't getting anywhere. Let me and beast do the fighting you COVER us!"

"i'm trying! This scenario is tense as hell. Oh boy, well honed reflexes are backfiring a lot here."

The scene paused on the image of Acid wire half out of the garganta. "They project the garganta on the wall and use it to get through doors."

* * *

"you don't have any powercells?" Morgan's disappointment was enormous.

"Kurotsuchi requisitioned them all for the renovations to the monitoring wing of his division. Sorry Morrigan." Unohana said contritely. "you should ask him to share and if he won't ask him where you can get more."

"Okay." Morgan sighed and hung up the video phone. "Sorry guys, lets try Kurotsuchi."

* * *

"Oh wonderful, so walls are no barrier."

"oh no no no, they /can/ be a barrier." Alex grinned. "A four hour marathon of Portal 1 and 2 lead Masamune to create garganta proof finish to cover walls. They look slightly darker than their basecoat, but a hollow can't make a garganta on a wall its coated with."

"Oh great, lets paint the entire manor in it." Wolverine said sarcastically. "Then all they have to do is break the walls down."

"Well yeah, that is... the caveat, they can still break down the walls to get in." Alex chuckled.

"Anyway, hollows all speak Spanish."

"oh yay, the one foreign language I speak the badguys can speak too." Jubilee sighed sarcastically.

"Its okay Jubilee, most of them speak english too. Spanish is just the universal hollow language." Gwen sighed. "no idea why, don't ask me I don't know. Anyway, there are several groups of spiritually powered humans as well. Quincy, Bounts, and Saya's power variety, the Fullbrings, as well as users of Magic, all of whom vary wildly, the Ninjas, and well... the Alchemists aren't really powered they borrow their power from nature... lets seeee... any number of random spiritual abilities are possible. Hmmmmm..."

"okay so hollow evolution starts with a freshly made hollow. Those are weak and kind of stupid. From there the hollow eats enough souls to become a "huge hollow" and most of these are human, but at the next stage something strange happens. The hollow either keeps eating humans or they switch to cannibalism and start eating each other. If they eat enough fellow hollows, usually in the neighborhood of a thousand, the hollow becomes a menos grande, also referred to as a Gillian."

The monitor showed the formation of a Gillian in Karakura town and Ichigo and Uryu's attempts to kill it. "You can tell by the scale, a menos grande is enormous. This is the attack you should be afraid of, almost more so than an arrancar. Arrancars are smart, they have the same intelligence as a human if you made it so one lived for a few hundred years. Because of this if you understand their basic mindset, you can /occasionally/ notice i said occasionally, use psychological tactics to force one to retreat. Gillians aren't smart at all, they're pretty damn dimwitted, and because of that, they can cause Godzilla like damage to their surroundings. And because they're far larger than arrancars, they won't be easy to hide or manuver. These guys are pretty nasty."

Wolverine flexed his claws. "Hmmmm... I'll bet Beast could give me a strong enough boost up to get up there. That thing looks building sized though, might need to bring the Blackbird along."

Jubilee looked horrified. "We'd have to FIGHT that thing? Its godzilla sized!"

"So, the Sentinals are about the same size." Rogue pointed out. "And unlike the sentinals they have an established weakpoint, the mask."

Jubilee just looked plain intimidated, a pale expression on her face. Jean smiled at her. "lets save figuring out how to kill one until we get down to training okay? I think you're scaring Jubilee Wolverine."

"Now the next stage isn't achieved in front of human eyes or the eyes of those that walk in the light. Once a newly formed Gillian has been beaten back to Hueco mundo, it hides in an area called the menos forest and feeds on other gillians until it transforms into a form called an adjuchas. Once it its adjuchas a hollow may branch off into the more human like "arrancar" or become a "vasto lordes." The higher the hollow's level, the more human the arrancar that results from its evolution will appear. Arrancars are created by removing the hollow's mask, but in this case only part of it. Somehow if its done just right the hollow evolves or thats how the natural way is supposed to be. Aizen, who's ordered the invasion of your world, discovered another way to do it using an item called the Hogyoku. Adjuchas must constantly consume other adjuchas or they'll go back to gillian form with no hope of sentience or return to their previous strength. They are /constantly/ fighting to keep their reasoning ability. If they lose that battle, then they're doomed. Adjuchas are also known as "hollow shepherds" for their ability to order the gillians around if they need to. A vasto lordes has taken a humanoid, but definately not human form. They are small, compact hollows with enough strength to destroy entire cities. They are /very/ rare, few ever make it to that strength, and few of them ever leave Hueco Mundo. If you can't cleanse a hollow by the time it hits vasto, you've pretty much missed the boat to free the souls trapped inside of it."

"This protecting souls thing is really important to you shinigami isn't it?" Jubilee seemed to be asking the most questions, which Gwen was quite pleased with.

"You think cheree?" Gambit asked with a chuckle. "They have to keep the cycle of life and death moving, a large hollow represents a roadblock for moving the souls inside of it, and a powerful hollow is dangerous enough that they'd have trouble approaching it. Its not that hard to figure out."

"Thats right, once a hollow is a vasto lordes, or an arrancar, it can be taken from the ranks of other high level hollows by an entity called the Hive Queen. The Hive Queen transforms high level hollow and arrancar into a stage called "Enforcers." she handpicks them. The "Enforcers" and other servents of the Hive Queen are considered to be in Divine Service and only approach shinigami when they want to commit suicide. If a soul is in divine service, cleansing its hollow is out of our hands until the Enforcer decides they've had it and want to die, or their God kicks them and says they need to go. Enforcers are there to seal the powers of really, really high level enemies. To be honest the only one of yours thats high enough to ever merit an Enforcer is Apocalypse, simply because the immortality thing and his last attempt to cause the end of the world, this time by getting into the time stream's nexus, is actually a crime that puts him under Gatekeeper jurisdiction. If they felt like it they could order the Enforcers to attack him, but only during an active attempt at world destroying that damages part of space time. The Enforcers are that powerful, if you find yourself in a position to see one, better enjoy the sight while you can, its probably the only one you'll see in your lifetime."

"Might as well start with the quincies and bounts, I'll call Saya back down to explain her powers."

"Right. And I'll have to explain the Magic Weapons, Tachi and Judah would be mad at us if we didn't."

"ayup, and the yokai. I remember one Inu-Yasha who'd bean you if you didn't."

"Lets save the yokai for if one of them actually shows up." Gwen sighed. "I don't want to overload everyone."

Alex darted out, long white coat trailing behind her. A huge grin was on her face.

"So... quincies are spiritually powered humans with archery based abilities. They can manipulate spirit particles, or reishi. Reishi are essentially the atoms that make up spirits and ghosts."

"interesting... any relationship to WIMPS?"

"Honestly, i'm not a physics person Beast." Gwen chuckled. "Reishi is highly volitile. Some say its what makes up their powers, some say its their desire for revenge for all their fallen comrades. But the quincy end up destroying the souls of the hollows they slay. The soul society tried to get them to stop, if they kept killing the hollow souls instead of returning them to the cycle, then they'd tear a hole in space and ultimately destroy the world. Not the kind of thing we really wanted. But the soul society handled it the worst way possible, they killed most of the quincy off. It was a huge war and the veterans of it still harbor the scars from it. They didn't /want/ to do any of it. The order had come down."

There was a collective shudder. "The bounts were made immortal by consuming deceased souls. Eating a living soul or even part of it can drive a bount insane. They're mostly extinct, to my knowledge only one is left. They were kept in refugee camps and well... after awhile one of them went kinda crazy and lead his people on a suicide attack. They were trying to destroy the seireitei, so we shinigami needed to defend our home."

"I'm sensing a theme here."

"hey, if you destroy the soul society a helluva lot of humans will die too." Gwen sighed.

"Please tell me there's a group of spiritually aware humans that /doesn't/ want to destroy the soul society and /hasn't/ been wiped out by you guys?" Jubilee asked hopefully.

"uhuh, plenty of them. The most notable call themselves the Clan of Argent though some are using the term "Confederacy" now instead of "Clan." You see, about the time of the quincy war there was a huge rift in space that pulled people from three different worlds into the one I was born in. The cast aways included a hundred and fifty shinigami who fought a desperate war on the American Frontier to keep the souls there safe, and in the end they died for the homeland they had lost, but still believed in. Their half breed and mortal descendants dedicated themselves to protecting the innocent, and they brought other powered humans to their cause."

Masamune entered the doorway, "We're like that song from Three Doors Down, Citizen/Soldier. The network of protection we built extends across North America and crosses the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans with field offices in London and Okinawa. Our goal is to protect the souls in all the places people can reach and act as relay stations for supplies and training personelle. And of course, our sanctuaries are places for Deceased souls to live in peace. We attract a lot of Law Enforcement and Clergy. Some of the recruits I've /never/ regretted taking under my wings include a Nun and an New York City ADA. But its the ordinary folks who can just see, who come to me asking "What can I do" that I find the most rewarding. We aren't an army, we're a defense network aimed at making our ancestor's adopted home and the souls in it safe."

Professor Xavier smiled, he could tell she believed very strongly in what she believed in. "Independence seems to be an important principle to you Masamune. Any particular reason?"

"phhhhttt, so I need a reason now? Professor, do you know how much of our individual liberties people are willing to give up in /normal/ times? All you need to do is lose yourself in the fear and you lose /all/ the freedoms we believe in as American Citizens. Thinking for yourself, doing things for yourself, isn't illegal yet. But when municipal courts and zoning regulators do things like... oooh... sell off alternative energy patents to never ever be developed so that car and oil companies can continue putting gas guzzling pollution spewing monstrosities on the roads and community gardens to feed the hungry are bulldozed... that sort of exploitation and destruction is unforgivable. I take it upon myself to remind my fellow citizens where. we. Come. From. The first ten years of the twenty first century will see this country going to hell in a hand basket. They did where I'm from, and I absolutely refuse to be part of it or /quietly/ lie down and let my liberties be taken by old men in Washington who know or care NOTHING of the damage they do." Saya said quietly. "Masamune's purpose is to /remind/ people of that."

"Right, so since I've gotten to them, I might as well start with what powers predominate or are notable in the Argent Clan starting with Saya and Alex."

"i'll do mine. I'm the only Fullbring our folks have got but I've been hearing reports in Karakura town of another group of us. Fullbring comes when a pregnant woman is attacked by a hollow and survives. Ole Boss Sucho was the one that attacked my mum, Dad put him out of his misery when I was five.

"Fullbringers have the ability to alter the matter of things they care about. In my case... well... art is my solace. I have the brain of a manager, thats my chosen profession, but its my /art/ that brings me peace. And because of that, I can bring the things I paint to life. In addition Fullbringers can use a technique called soul pull to draw on ordinary matter and change it. For example..."

Beneath Saya's feet, suddenly she could... bounce? Saya had turned the floor beneath her feet elastic. It was glowing a pale bluish green. "And we have this technique, Bringer Light." Suddenly Saya was standing behind the Professor. A burst of pale greenish blue light was the only sign she had done anything. "Fullbrings are also capable of swapping their abilities to a substitute shinigami from time to time. Or of giving their abilities to a substitute shinigami and forgoing their powers permanently. But I won't, /ever./ There are people who need me." Saya said quietly. "I'm a citizen soldier, thats my frame of mind. People /need/ me."

"My skills are... well... magical..." Alex grinned. "Well my natural ones. Magic is an external force, it lies in everything, in everyone, in creation. It is weaker in places where science has been embraced by man. But in places where Faith dominates over technological advancement, that is where Magic has a foothold. My abilities run along the lines of cleansings, healings, blessings and exorcisms. If you need a home protected, a heart healed, a child protected, I call the white light down to protect them." Alex demonstrated, holding her hands up as they glowed pale white with blooms of gentle, warming energy. "Because Magic has a connection to faith, and because of the phoenixes that have given themselves to be my armaments, I have gained the nickname "Flash Angel." Everyone in my squad learns how to heal, both by ordinary means and by magic. The head of training is my mother Muriel because I haven't mastered my healing abilities yet. My "Demon Phoenixes" Bennu and Anasazi are able to transform into weapons and have three stages, claws, sword and shield, and talons." Alex replied. "They grant me two stages of transformation as well, Flash Angel and Kachina Sky Warrior."

"The demon phoenixes belong to a class of powered... well except for the phoenixes they're all humans, powered humans known as Magic Weapons. Magic weapons are supporting fighters. Only a few can fight autonomously. That said they can greatly increase the powers of the fighter using them. This is accomplished by establishing resonance between the soul of the weapon and that of its wielder, or Meister. The central place for magic weapons to be trained is a school in a dimension far away called "Shibusen." Most of the Magic weapons that the gatekeepers and soul society are in contact with are Argent clan members and /not/ Shibusen members." Gwen explained. "They fall squarely into the support class of fighters and when their powers become corrupt, it does so in a big way. The consequences could even fall into them losing their humanity, and with it any legal rights they may have had under the law. Despite this they are not generally dangerous. Its just that misusing their powers has far, far more dangerous consequences than a mutant's powers do."

"In addition, though you likely won't be seeing them for awhile, we've got ninja allies as well. Their jutsu techniques helped the soul society complete its work involving the human flow of reiryoku and Konohagakure's hospital is still the best place in the multiverse to go for a powered human with specialized medical needs. Some ninja have genetically based abilities as well, known as Kekkei genkai, or blood line limits. Rather than being unique, these abilities are family skills, passed down from generations of clans folk. Basically, they're clans who all have the same powers, but not always the same talents.

"Finally for this session, those who's abilities are based in technology. My grandfather and my wives fall into this category. Major Motoko Kusanagi and ZP, as well as my grandfather Daisuke Aramaki are not only technology experts, they're cyborgs, their bodies enhanced by prosthetic technology far beyond what's widely available on your world. They live in the 2030s, though ZP isn't from the same world as the other two her world has extensive robotics technology in use. And their worlds are ones that I hold very dearly in my heart." Gwen smiled briefly with the expression of a young woman in love.

"I take it there are more?"

"oh yes, dozens of varieties of human power. But I've covered the ones I felt you were most likely to encounter. If something else arises I'll bring it up okay."

* * *

"I can't spare powercells for some sewer rats." Kurotsuchi snarled and hung up on Morgan.

"Damn, nice guy." Spiderman said with a grin behind his mask. Morgan could see the outlines of his mouth pulling back in a smile.

"He's an egomaniacal mad scientist, I've only known a few of those to give a damn when appealed to for help." Morgan said in disgust. She dialed a number.

"Who are you dialing."

"ZP's too busy with general goings on... lets try Washu."

"Omnipotent office of super hacking epic win, Penelope Garcia and the lovely Abby Sciuto speaking." (1)

"Hey! Why you ladies forgetting the /black/ hacker in the room? I swear just cause i'm a brutha." (2) A goth girl with pig tails and a cheerful expression, a nerdy girl with glasses and blonde hair and brightly colored odds and ends on her desk, and a black man in his late twenties early thirties answered from their respective stations, although the third member of the trio was just walking up to his station, the other two were comfortably seated and eager looking.

"Sorry Hardison, please tell me you got my big gulp!" Abby begged hopefully. "it is the key to my mighty super powers of science awesomeness!"

"I got two... and a six pack of mountain dew to help fuel our techno awesome chaoooosss!"

"THANK YOU SO MUCH HARDISON YOU'RE THE BEST SNACK RUNNER PERSON EVER EXCEPT FOR GIBBS!" Abby cried in delight.

"Guys what happened to Washu?"

"ooooooh, she's off trying to captu... I mean recruit... GlaDOS and raid Aperture Science Laboratories in search of her very own Portal Gun."

"oh my god... I swear you scientists I'm gonna..." Morgan looked about to lose her temper, skin red behind her mask and face twitching.

"What do you need? I've got Belili on speed dial." Penelope asked hopefully.

"I NEED power cells for barrier emission grids. The ones I put up at the entrances to the Morlock tunnels are not sufficient to keep out anything Gillian and HIGHER."

"oh boy, you're kidding me, send me the barrier telemetry."

"you seem to have a real grudge against scientists." Spiderman mused as Morgan pecked out some numbers for the three operators. He tossed Leech another apple (his third.) "Eat up kid, you're a growing boy."

"My name is Leech!" Leech said cheerfully. "Thank you! I am happy for the apples!"

Spiderman sighed. "Probably not getting to that friends for applesauce later, not if we have to keep up like this." And he'd /soooo/ been looking forward to having a container of Aunt May's special applesauce to take with him to training at Urahara's.

"Sorry about this Spiderman, Commander Yamamoto has seen hollows disappear into the sewers once to evade being killed, he doesn't want it to happen again." Ichigo told him. "Once I know those barrier emission cells are here, I'll find a way to make it up to you."

"Thats alright, there will always be more of my friend's special applesauce." He grinned, tossing the bag to Leech. "here, make sure the other children and elderly in your group get some."

"Leech will! Leech very happy! Thank you!" The kid ran off into the sewers to bring the food to the other Morlocks.

"Okay, I've located two dozen emission crystals in storage, but that will only protect the Morlock's main tunnels. Satellite tunnels could still be entered and affected. I'm going to keep working on finding something to boost the power but in the end..."

"What about these?"

Abby tossed Garcia a large metal robot with no skin that said "Howdy stranger!" to the FBI technical analyst.

"A defective turret?" Morgan's eyebrows went up. "You got a bunch of those out of Aperture? What use are they?"

"They've got powercells too! They can hook into the USB port of the emission system!" Abby exclaimed. "Its not the same as a proper powercell, but I know we can rig them to boost it."

"Sure." Morgan grinned. "Send ten of them. Make /ABSOLUTELY/ sure they're disarmed and make sure you program them to be /SILENT/ in the presence of normal humans!"

"Great, I'll find a messanger to bring you the defective turrets and the emission crystal cells." Abby dialed Belili's office number. "Morgan you're gonna have to rerig their sensors and programming yourself but with Gwen's help on the programming bit I think you can do it."

"Gwen is on this project." Belili told Abby. "I'll call her."

Belili dialed Gwen's com crystal.

* * *

"Moshi moshi!" Gwen said cheerfully.

"Gwen please tell me you've got two guest passes on you." Belili could see the faces of the X-men lean in close to have a look.

"Sure Belili whaju need?"

"Right, I need you to pick up some powercells and defective turrets from the Tech department and get them to the Morlock tunnels. Morrigan wasn't given enough power cells to make barriers strong enough to stop anything gillian or higher. So the tunnels while now protected from small hollows are unable to stop any of Aizen's arrancars."

"And he won't hesitate to rub that in our faces. I'm on it."

"While you're at it, take two of the X-men of your choice with you."

Gwen nodded and thought for a moment. "Um... lets seeeeeee... Beast-san, you're a scientist right? You go, and bring one of the girls with you."

"ME ME! ME ME ME!" Jubilee exclaimed.

Belili pecked a few keys to figure out the two cents she was gonna add on the subject of who went with Gwen. "Lets seee... prelimenary mission files... ah Jubilation Lee, sorry sweetie, it says here you still have accidents involving your powers and electronics. I need someone who's power related accidents don't result in sensitive equipment being busted. A lot of this stuff if it breaks can't be taken to your local mall repair shop."

"You saw that?" Jubilee was horrified.

"our scout was the store clerk in disguise the day that Mutant virus thing happened." Saya snickered.

"I remember how upset dad was the FOH guy had ruined his gigai." Gwen sighed. "Shame a good one takes weeks to make, a custom one could take two months, and /that/ was a custom rig the FOH got infected."

"Anyway, Aramaki-taichou decided to look into it and found a number of accidents involving powers and tech getting fried. Don't worry about missing errand duty." Belili told Jubilee. "you'll get plenty more chances. If I were you I'd be more concerned about rallying some support for the Xavier School for the Gifted among those places you go for your errands when your name comes up. You should make yourself a few friends to call if you need a hand."

"I want to meet the other world's X-men. I'm so much younger than everybody here. It would be nice to have other teenage mutants to practice and play with." Jubilee said quietly.

"Your desire for company is noted little Jubilee. I'll make sure you have the opportunity."

"Anything notable going on at Shield Station I'll need to know about?" Gwen asked worriedly.

"yeah. Washu's raid on Aperture Science Laboratories is over, she's captured GlaDOS, who will remain in custody either as a prisoner or a recruit, her choice, while we rescue the humans down in their cryogenic freezing area. There will be massive security in the entry bay and live fire may break out once the turrets come through. She was holding thirty three thousand humans prisoner and experimenting on them. What happens to her now depends on if she turns out to be a cyborg with a ghost or a true AI. If she's a true AI, odds are she'll be sealed up somewhere or deactivated. If she's a cyborg with a ghost, she'll be made to give restitutionary service to the Gods until she's paid off her debt to society. A hundred years for every human she's killed and we have a lot of skeletons coming up out of that lab."

Wolverine shuddered. "Doesn't sound like the place we'd want the little half pint going to anyway."

"Hmmm... i'm looking at your team's stats, the /other/ Jean is helping with the salvage effort, so sending her alternate may not be a good idea. But the alternate Rogue is currently helping Captain Unohana with the soul society's biannual food preservation efforts. It should be safe to send Rogue."

"meee? I get to go first?" Rogue rose. "I'll get my pack. C'mon Beast."

"you won't need more than your uniform, a field knife and a day pack." Belili said as she hung up. "Gwen, I'm setting your guest passes for a simple round trip. Give them to Rogue and Beast in five minutes when they've geared up.

"This will be fascinating. Shield station you called it? I'm assuming that you meant a space station." Beast said eagerly.

"uhuh, sealed into a pocket dimension." Gwen grinned. "Now you see why we didn't want an accident up there."

Jubilee sat there pouting. She wanted to go! a real live space station and captured artificial intelligence robots? that sounded like her kind of assignment!

"Thats okay, Jubilee I can teach you how to sew leather if you want." Grinned Alex. "My cousin Morrigan and I are really good at it."

"Thank you Flash Angel er... I don't know your..."

"Its Alex, Alexandria Argent."

"And I'm Saya Labeaux Kuchiki, and you've had Gwen's real name."

* * *

~ shield station ~

The sound of screaming Ais filled the entry bay at Shield Station. (3)

"WILL SOMEBODY SHUT HER UP?" Yelled Fred and George over the din. "YEAH, WE WANTED TO COAT TURRETS WITH REPULSION GEL AND MAKE THEM SING "HARK THE TURRET VOICES SING WHILE THEY BOUNCE!" WE CAN'T PLAY PRANKS WITH SINGING TURRETS IF WE DON'T HAVE A QUIET ENTRY BAY!"

"I SWEAR TO GOOOOOOOOOOOODD I MADE THAT STUPID CAVE JOHNSON DIE WASHU I'LL MAKE YOU DIIIIEEE TOOOO!" GlaDOS was screaming in agony and thrashing in Washu's grip. "YOU HAD TO MEDDLE WITH MY SCIENCE AND NOW I'M GOING TO MAKE YOU PAY FOR IT!"

"BRING CAROLINE BACK AND I'LL STOP! YOU HAD NO RIGHT TO ERASE MY ANSWEERRRSSS! I'M GOING TO EXPERIMENT ON YOU TILL YOU GIVE HER BACK!" Washu was pissed off.

Electricity, robot limbs and wires were grappling with spirit energy. "When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade, blow the lemons up." The Other Jean sighed as she struggled to protect the others there from flying lightning bolts generated by the exposed elements of Glados' robot body and from flailing wiring.

"OMIGOD OMIGOD OMIGOOOOD I'M IN SPAAAAAAACEEE!" Newly liberated from the lab, only one AI refused to quake in fear at GlaDOS' temper tantrum. And it was currently making the most of a flying charm Fred and George had put on it, and the fact that it was in "SPAAAAAAAAAAACEE OMIGOD OMIGOD I'M IN SPAAAAACEEE! SPACE TRIAL PUT THE SYSTEM ON TRIAL IN SPACE GUILTY!" The hyperactive spacecore now flew towards the /other/ Jean Grey exclaiming. "LADY LADY LADY I'M IN SPAAAAACEEEEE..."

Only to be halted mid air. It was the Other Magneto, there for security aid, he'd pulled the exuberant creature back and used magnetism to shut down its speakers temporarily.

"I swear whoever created these Ai's must have been insane." He muttered to Jean. "I've seen birds that made better sense."

The gatekeeper portal behind him opening up caused the other Magneto to temporarily lose his grip only to see...

"LADY, OMIGOD OMIGOD OMIGOD, I'M IN SPAAAAAAAAAACEEEEEE!" The Space core leapt for a familiar newcomer with fuzzy black hair and a tattoo'd face.

"oye Gwen... just the right person." She was scrawny, she was scarred, she was tattoo'd, green eye'd, and frizzy haired, with her entire left arm a cybernetic prosthesis. She didn't look like much, but for once, Magneto was quite pleased to see Gwen appear.

If only to make GlaDOS stop screaming.

* * *

1. Yes, Penelope Garcia from Criminal Minds and Abby Sciuto from NCIS are teamed up for epic science win. I'm /that/ awesome.

2. AND HARDISON TOOOOOOOOO LEVERAGE FTW!

3. At this point we enter multiverse mode big time. Relevant universes Portal and Portal 2, X-men evolution, Tenchi Muyo, X-men, Bleach and Harry Potter. expect other possible universes to show up as well.


End file.
